


Calamity

by orphan_account



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Blood, M/M, Murder, Mystery, P5 Dark Bang, Persona 3 and 4 characters appear as background characters, Suicide, another AU, light gore
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:34:56
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 26,190
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23394103
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: 'It’s a morbid interest, you know, to concern yourself with the dead'Transferring to a new school was never going to be easy for Ren, but at least he's lucky enough to have someone show him to the school and friendly classmates who are quick to include him in their activities. Or at least... they were friendly to him, unlike the guy in the back of the class, sitting in his old, crummy desk. Ren would put it down to bullying, but even the teacher seemed to act like the guy didn't exist.Everyone tells Ren to just act like them, follow the rules and do as they do, but it wouldn't be fair to treat someone like they're a ghost and join in on this. Even if every time he mentioned it the others looked like he was trying to start a tragedy.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 26
Kudos: 103





	1. April I

**Author's Note:**

> I think should preface this with a warning; there is going to be a lot of death in this one. The details aren't super gory, but do take the tags seriously, especially because it may be characters that you like.
> 
> Oh and to avoid confusion, everyone in the class is the same age.

The first few droplets falling from the sky go completely unnoticed by Ren while he tries to work out the way to his new address from the train station. It’s only when those droplets begin to hit his phone screen that he even realises that a downpour is about to begin. He reaches into his bag, pulls out an umbrella and opens it up, all the while holding onto his phone tightly, so it doesn’t fall to the ground. He hears some running behind him, and before he can turn around to check who it is, a blond-haired guy runs past him and into the closest shelter- the roof of a long-closed kiosk.

Once he’s sure neither his phone nor his umbrella falls out of his hands he looks over to the guy who had just ran ahead and on closer inspection he looked around his age. The guy shakes the water out of his hair with his hand and looks over to Ren, “Do I know you?” He calls out in a aggravating tone.

Ren waves his hand and shakes his head, “That’s impossible,” he insists and walks a little closer, “Um…” he hums, unsure of how helpful this guy would be. Unfortunately, he seems to be the only one around and with Ren’s phone signal being clunky he’s better off asking a local for directions, “Do you know where Leblanc is?”

“Leblanc?” The blond looks around as if he’s confused by the name, “Oh, the café, right? Uh, just keep going down the main road, take a right, and then the second left… I think,” the guy rubs the back of his head, “Don’t got much of a reason to go there, so I could be wrong.”

Regardless of whether he was right or wrong, Ren smiles, “Thanks for the help anyway.”

The guy smiles back and gasps when he’s clearly hit with some idea. He points to Ren’s trousers, tone now completely changed from slightly annoyed to extremely interested, “Wait, that’s Shuujin’s uniform, ain’t it?” He points to his pin, “And you’re a third year like me, huh? But uh… I definitely would’ve seen you around before, town ain’t that big after all. You a transfer?”

Ren nods, putting his phone into his pocket given how useless it is to him now.

“Nice! What class are you in? D’you know already?” The stranger continues his interrogation of the newcomer.

“3-C,” Ren answers in the short and simple manner he usually did, regardless of who he’s talking to.

“Oh,” the guys expression suddenly shifts from happy to upset, “Well, kinda sucks then if you’re only just transferring here… maybe it won’t affect you,” The guy whispers, and before Ren gets a chance to question him about the ominous words, the guy cuts in again, “I’m Sakamoto, by the way, Sakamoto Ryuji. But uh, you can call me Ryuji, everyone does.”

“I’m Amamiya Ren,” Ren introduces himself to the first person he’s met in his new town, “Um… likewise, you can call me Ren.”

“Ren-Ren, got it!” The guy puts his thumb up and smiles, but upon extending his hand he realises just how much it’s still raining and sighs, “Ugh, this weather ain’t gonna let up any time soon. Guess I gotta run home. See ya at school!” With that, his first acquaintance in the town runs off leaving Ren alone by the train station.

Following Ryuji’s direction, Ren walks a fast pace towards the café, hoping to get out of the rain as soon as possible. It’s only early April so the weather is quite cold, and if possible, he’d rather avoid being absent on his first day due to an illness. Luckily for him, Ryuji seemed to remember the way correctly as once he makes a left turn, he sees the café ahead of him.

Just before entering it, he closes his umbrella, shakes it off and steps inside, causing the bells above the door to chime and announce his arrival. His nostrils are filled with the smell of coffee and unexpectedly for a place like this, curry as well. Despite the wonderful smells, it seems like he’s only the third person to have stepped through the doors today, as besides the owner of the café, there’s only one other person in there, sipping quietly on his coffee at the bar.

The gruff owner turns away from the TV announcing today’s news, and towards the door. He points to Ren’s umbrella, then to the coat hanger next to him, “You're Ren, right? Make sure to leave that in there, don’t want to be cleaning up after you this early on.”

The familiarity throws Ren off a little, but he complies and places the umbrella into the lower part of the coat hanger where a couple of umbrellas were already inside. Ren hears a clink, and turning around he sees the owner place a cup of coffee and a plate of curry at the bar, “Here. You’ve been on the road all day, so you’re probably hungry already.”

Thanking him quietly Ren moves over to the bar just a seat away from the only other customer inside and takes a seat. Before he begins eating he glances over to the owner, “Do you-.”

The owner folds his arms and leans back against the shelves behind him, “I know your circumstances, yeah. Look, you probably don’t remember me, you were here last when you were just a kid but your parents decided to entrust you to me for this year because they’ll be too busy to take care of you themselves,” pulling out a box of cigarettes, the owner takes one out alongside a lighter. He puts the cigarette between his lips, lights it, inhales and only continues once he exhales, “So for your final year, you’ll be living upstairs. I’ll be asking you to help me down here occasionally too, got it?” Once Ren nods, the owner points to the plate, “Eat up before it gets cold.”

Ren picks up the fork next to his plate and without hesitating digs into his meal. The owner was right; after such a long trip, one where he didn’t get much of an opportunity to buy any food, he’s completely starved. He eats silently, with the TV still playing in the background and neither of the other men in the cafe say anything to each other.

Once he’s done Ren looks up only to notice that the owner’s gone, although the other customer is still here finishing up his own coffee. Ren looks over to him, “Where did he go?”

“Too encompassed with your meal to notice?” The customer asks with a chuckle once he sets down his cup on the bar, “Sakura-san had some business to take care of at home and asked you to close up.”

“But you’re still here,” Ren points out, and the customer gets off of his stool and pulls out his wallet. He drops some coins onto the bar, presumably the amount he needed to pay for the coffee he drank and picks up a briefcase from the chair next to him.

“For today, yes, I suppose I still am,” The customer admits like Ren’s supposed to know what he’s talking about, “It’ll be different tomorrow,” the customer eyes him up and down, “Good luck on your first day of school. Perhaps in another life time we’ll be able to talk again,” with words more ominous than the ones Ryuji spoke, the customer picks his umbrella pout of the stand and leaves the café, even saving Ren the trouble of flipping the sign outside over to say that it’s closed.

Not even one hour of living in this new town and everyone around him is already acting like they’re all in on something that Ren is supposed to know about. Maybe if Sakura comes back, he can ask him about it. For now, he’ll just have to hope whoever he meets at school tomorrow won’t be anywhere near as weird as Ryuji or the brown-haired customer.

* * *

The next morning he’s completely startled when he wakes up. For one, Ren has no recollection of even falling asleep. He’s certain he looked through the cardboard box full of his clothes that was delivered prior to his arrival, he cleaned up a bit and threw out some trash and old posters left behind, then sat down on his bed as soon as he got into his pyjamas.

Secondly, and more importantly, the presence of a red-haired girl staring down at his sleeping form has him opening his eyes wide and sitting up quickly when she doesn’t move away. She keeps staring at him like nothing’s wrong, and Ren begins to think he was completely misguided in thinking anyone in this weird ass town was normal.

The girl suddenly jumps back and starts waving her arms around, “Ah! Sorry! I didn’t mean to startle you! It’s just super weird seeing someone up here… uh, Sojiro told me to make sure you’re awake for the first day of school, so here I am!”

Still guarded, Ren pulls up his covers and gives her a questioning look, “You being…?” He asks for clarification.

She points to the pin on her school uniform, “fellow student of class 3-C, Sakura Futaba!” She says excitedly, “Um… oh, you probably want some privacy, huh? Sorry for intruding on you like that!” Sakura hops over to the stairs and points down, “I’ll be waiting in one of the booths. Sojiro wants me to show you to school, so better get ready for that!”

Once the girl has left his room, Ren releases a sigh of relief. Okay so the girl might be a little out of touch, but at least she seems to have some good intentions. It was adorable in its own way, and somehow less intimidating than Ryuji or the guy from yesterday, though he makes a mental note to ask the girl just how much she knows about personal boundaries and what lines she should and shouldn’t be crossing.

Ren retrieves his toiletries, gets out his uniform and once he’s got that on he goes downstairs to the bathroom he recalled seeing on the way up to the attic. As promised, Sakura is still waiting for him patiently at one of the booths once he’s ready to set off for the day. Before they leave, however, Ren has a question for her, “I don’t remember Sojiro ever having kids…”

Sakura nods, “That’s cos he doesn’t. But he adopted me after my mum passed away last year, which is why we have the same surname,” she explains and gets out of her seat, “Look, just a warning, but this town and this school… well, they’re hardly your average place. I’m sure you probably met some weirdos already, but as long as you follow the rules, you’ll be fine!”

The way to school is pleasant with Futaba, as she insists on being called, showing him a slightly longer way to school in order to pass by the grocery shop and a small bakery, both run by the locals. The gates to the school are open and there’s still students walking in as soon as they arrive, but instead of waiting around for the bell, Futaba shows Ren to their classroom.

When they open the doors it looks like most of the students are already there, chatting away among their small groups. The classroom is pretty standard, if a little bare, but what catches Ren off guard is a desk in the corner of the room. It’s clearly old and should have been thrown out and replaced a long time ago, and even the rest of the class seems to steer as far away from it as possible.

Without a clear idea as to where he should sit, Ren hangs around at the door while Futaba hops over to talk to her friends. He considers joining her, but when looking around the room he catches the eye of a girl with dark red hair, and she walks over to him, followed by a brown haired girl. The taller of the two looks him up and down, and sighs, “You’re the transfer, right? Why on earth did they send you to this class?”

The girl behind her clears her throat, “The other classes were full apparently, so they sent him here,” she explains to her friend and looks at Ren, “I’m Takeba Yukari, student council secretary.”

“Amamiya Ren,” Ren introduces himself.

“I’m Kirijo Mitsuru, student council president,” the girl with the red hair introduces herself as well, “If you have any questions regarding your studies here or the school itself, you’re free to ask either one of us about it, and we will answer to the best of our ability,” they both walk away from him when they’re done with their introductions, and it’s just as well since the bell rings and everyone takes a seat.

Ren decides to just take whatever seat is left for him, but when everyone’s already sitting down, all seats are taken. Even the old desk at the back is occupied by the strange customer from the night before who Ren didn’t even notice walking into the class or being there before Ren himself arrived with Futaba.

He stays standing at the back of the class, even as the teacher walks in. The man looks at him, rubs the back of his head and sighs, “We’re missing a desk this year too, huh? Alright, Mishima, you know where to get another one, take the transfer student with you,” the teacher orders, and a student with darker hair stands up, walks to the back of the class and waves at Ren to follow him.

Ren leaves the classroom with Mishima, who leads him to an unused classroom a little way down the corridor, “Am I not on the register?” Ren asks just in case something wrong happened in terms of formalities, and Mishima shakes his head.

“No, it’s like this every year. We’re always short one desk,” Mishima explains and points to one of the desks, “This one looks decent. I’ll grab the table; you take the chair.”

Ren nods and does as he’s told, hoping that Mishima would further explain what he meant by that. Was the administration just that sloppy here that each year the number of desks never added up? One would think an error like that would be easily fixed, but unfortunately Mishima doesn’t follow up and they walk back to the classroom in silence. Meanwhile the other students had moved their desks around enough to make an extra space for Ren, who with Mishima’s help, puts down the desk and the chair and they begin class as soon as that’s out of the way.

“Alright, so, as everyone probably knows, we have a new transfer student. Please make him feel welcome here and make sure he knows all of the rules, got it?” The teacher asks rhetorically and continues the class, “For those of you who don’t know, I’m Mr. Kamoshida, and I’ll be your homeroom teacher for this year. Should I be unavailable if you have any questions, Miss Kawakami should be able to answer. Any questions?”

When no one speaks up, Kamoshida begins the class.

* * *

At lunch time everyone falls back into their groups except for, as Ren made sure to look this time, the guy from yesterday who sits on his own at the old desk and looks out of the window. No one even seems to acknowledge his presence, and Ren starts feeling bad. Was it all some joke they were in on to exclude their classmate? Sure, the guy seemed a little weird but from what he’d experienced so far it wasn’t any stranger than how everyone else behaved.

Ren seriously needs to up his standards, or at the very least, make sure that once he graduates, he can go back into the normal world as he is right now and not whatever this class will undoubtedly turn him into. He stands up, and starts walking over to his classmate, when he’s suddenly interrupted by a cheerful girl getting in his way, “You’re Amamiya-kun, right?” She asks.

Ren nods, briefly glancing over to the odd student who was now observing the two of them rather than the clouds outside. The girl manages to get his attention again, “I’m Takamaki Ann, but you can just call me Ann if you want.”

“It seems like everyone wants to be called by their given name,” Ren points out, as it’s the third time someone’s asked him to do that right off the bat. Ann giggles and nods enthusiastically.

“Yeah, it’s not a very big town so everyone here knows each other. It’d be kinda weird if we suddenly stared calling you by your surname, might make you think we're trying to exclude you or something,” Ann informs him, “Our class rep isn’t here today, but I’ll be happy to show you around the school once we finish if you’re up for that?”

Ren nods once and hums in a positive manner. The girl continues to smile though it’s clear she’s already unsure of what to say next, “Uh… well…” She stumbles on her words, “Just talk to me after class, okay? I’ll be waiting just outside.”

When she steps out of the way Ren realises that the student has once again disappeared and without him even noticing. How was that even possible? He was looking in the guys direction when talking to Ann. He turns to her before she can re-join her group, “Do you know where he went?”

“Where who went?” Ann asks, apparently unsure of what he could be talking about. Ren points to the desk for clarification and Ann shakes her head, “Uh, there was no one sitting there that could’ve gone anywhere. Maybe you’re just seeing ghosts?” Ann giggles and goes back to her friends.

Confused, Ren decides to leave the classroom to get some fresh air and clear his mind. The stranger must’ve been real, otherwise they probably would have made him sit at the old desk, right? So then, they really were treating the guy like he’s an outsider, something Ren had a feeling about since the guy suddenly appeared at the desk.

* * *

Ren’s sure some of his classmates would be at the front of the school in the courtyard for lunch, so instead, he chooses to go up and check if access to the rooftop was available. The doors at the top of the stairs aren’t locked, and he’s not sure if he’s even allowed up here but since no one’s here to stop him, he walks outside.

On the roof is only one other person, and of course, it’s the stranger from the day before, who’s leaning against the barrier by the ledge and looking down at the courtyard bellow. He doesn’t even look Ren’s way when the door closes behind him. Ren slowly takes a few steps forward, then joins him by the barrier, “Are you okay?”

The guy doesn’t answer, instead, he keeps on looking down at the courtyard. Ren clears his throat and tries again, “You looked a bit lonely in the classroom.” Again, there’s no response, “Do you come to Leblanc often?” Once again, the stranger says nothing and Ren sighs. He joins him in silently looking down at the courtyard, but the nagging feeling that something is wrong won’t leave Ren, so he presses further not ten minutes later, “Are the others bullying you?”

Finally, the stranger lets go of the barrier and turns his back on Ren, “It’s a morbid interest, you know, to concern yourself with the dead,” with that, the stranger leaves Ren alone on the rooftop, with more questions than he had before getting there.

* * *

When he gets back to the classroom, the chairs and desk have been moved around once more, apparently to accommodate for a girl that had only just gotten to the class. As soon as she spots Ren walking in, she stands up and makes her way over to him, only to extend her hand out, “Hello, you’re the new transfer student, correct? My name is Nijima Makoto, head of countermeasures.”

Ren shakes her hand, albeit reluctantly since she’s the first and only person who’s offered to do that. When he let’s go, Makoto sighs to herself like she’s disappointed by shaking his hand, which, out of all things today barely registers on Ren’s weirdness scale, “Head of countermeasures? Countermeasures against what?”

Makoto looks up at the clock on the wall and shakes her head, “You’re meeting up with Ann after class, right?” Ren nods, “Ask her to show you to the library. I’ll be waiting there.”

The bell rings signalling the end of their lunch break and Ren goes to take his seat, just a couple of desks away from the stranger.

Just as before no one, not even the teacher acknowledges him as he stands up, picks up his briefcase and leaves the classroom, apparently leaving for the day. It baffles Ren further that even the teacher seems to be in on this joke but… what if it isn’t a joke? Is the strange kid from the back of the class really just a ghost, a figment of Ren’s imagination?

But then… why would he imagine a stranger like this at all? Someone he's never even met?

* * *

When class ends, just as promised, Ren meets Ann just outside the class along with another girl with black hair pulled up into a ponytail. They stop talking and turn to Ren when he closes the door of the classroom behind him, “Makoto wanted me to find her in the library. There’s something she wants to show me.”

Ann nods, and turns in the opposite direction, “Alright, well, Shiho and I can show you the library first then,” she smiles and the three begin to walk down the corridor, “How are you finding school so far? Hopefully everyone’s been accommodating.”

Ren nods once, “Everyone’s been friendly, yeah.”

“Don’t worry,” Shiho reassures him, “You’re not the only one who thought everyone was weird when they joined the class. Or well, the town in general,” She tells him, and as if she knew he was waiting for her to explain, she continues, “Minato and Minako only moved here when high school started, and most of us already knew each other by then, and Minako straight up admitted we were weird. Yu joined us only last year and said pretty much the same thing.”

Ann nods enthusiastically, “I think it’s just something about this town. It’s so out of the way and the closest city to us is half an hour by train so we’ve all just grown close and indulge in our… well…”

“Weirdness?” Ren asks, and Shiho nods.

“Pretty much, yup,” They stop at the end of the corridor and turn left. Shiho points to the big door in front of them, “She’ll probably be in the back. Good luck.”

Ren pushes the library door and steps through. Inside, the first person he sees is a guy in a hat reading over what appears to be a yearbook, but he doesn’t pay any attention to Ren. Walking around the bookshelves, he finally finds Makoto sitting at a small desk, reading a book. She looks up when she hears footsteps and smiles at Ren, then nods for him to take a seat opposite her, “Won’t we be disturbing everyone else?”

Makoto shakes her head, “There’s no one in here apart from us and Naoto, and she’s so intensely focused right now she may not even be aware that you walked in here. This shouldn’t take long regardless.”

“What is… _this_ anyway?”

“Think of it as induction into the class,” Makoto begins, “Unfortunately… it won’t be the same as everyone else’s given your late arrival to the class. Specifically, I need you to promise to abide by the rules of class 3-C. I can’t risk giving you the details until next month, but if they aren’t clear to you, then simply follow what everyone else is doing and _don’t ask questions_ ,” Makoto says sternly, “Understood?”

_You mean, ignoring the other guy like everyone else?_ Rem doesn’t say, Makoto’s deathly stare being incentive enough to stop him from asking her questions like that, “Understood.”

Makoto’s face contorts back into a pleasant smile, “Then I wish you the best in our final year! That will be all.”

Leaving the table, Ren thinks he understands why Shiho felt compelled to wish him luck in the first place. He meets back up with the other two, who gleefully show him around the school but he’s too caught up in trying to solve the mystery of the harsh treatment towards the other student.

* * *

He shakes his umbrella from the rainwater just before he enters the café, once again mostly empty save for the same two people as yesterday. Except just when he’s about to ask the stranger any question- his name, how his day went by, really any information on him at all, the bell chimes and Futaba almost rams into his back, headfirst.

“Why are you standing in the door?” She cries out and moves around him to sit at the other end of the bar, “Sojiro!” She whines loudly, “I hunger!”

Sighing, Sojiro turns around, finds a plate for her in a cupboard and serves her some curry with rice. While she digs in, he looks over to Ren, “Did you go to eat somewhere with your classmates, or do I have to feed you too?” At the mention of food, Ren’s stomach growls for him, “Guess that’s pretty indicative,” Sojiro replies and serves him a plate too, placing it right next to Futaba, along with a cup of coffee.

Ren puts his umbrella into the cloak stand, puts his bag down on one of the steps leading up to the attic, then takes a seat next to Futaba. The stranger makes no eye contact with any of them, no remark, and just as Ren had expected, even Futaba doesn’t seem to acknowledge his presence in the slightest. Just when Ren picks up his fork and turns his head to try and invite the stranger into a friendly conversation, Futaba butts in, loudly, “So! Whaddya think of our school? Pretty weird, huh?”

“Hmm?” Ren turns and tries to answer back politely. Seriously, this treatment was beginning to irritate even _him,_ “It’s… unique. Everyone seems friendly… for the most part.”

Agreeing with him, Futaba nods enthusiastically, “Yeah, heard you talked to Makoto? She scared me at first too, don’t worry, but she’s really fluffy on the inside once you get to know her a bit more! She just has to be like that with newcomers, considering her work and all…”

“What _is_ her work?” Ren tries to ask, not expecting much from Futaba either.

“Head of countermeasures, she told you, didn’t she?” Futaba inquires.

“What countermeasures?” Ren continues to press her for information, but it’s about as much as Futaba’s willing to divulge now that she’s almost done with her own curry and coffee.

“Oh crap! I totally forgot to record the latest Neo Featherman episode!” Clearly avoiding the topic and not being at all subtle in hiding it, she jumps out of her chair and runs to the door, “Uh, see you in school, Ren!” She shouts back, runs through the door and practically slams it on her way out, her actions causing the stranger to chuckle.

It’s the first time he’s heard anything at all positive coming from him, and just when he opens his mouth to talk to him, he gets out of his own seat, picks up his briefcase and leaves the café with the chime of the bells.

Ren finishes his curry and coffee in silence once again, the quiet hum of the news on the TV being his only background noise. When he’s done, he picks up the plate and cups left behind by both Futaba and the stranger and offers to wash them himself in the sink. While he’s drying them off, he finally gets the courage to ask Sojiro what he’d been trying to say throughout his meal, “Can you teach me how to make his favourite blend?”

Look out through the window, the storm only seems to be getting worse, so Sojiro drops his newspaper onto the counter with a deep sigh, “Well, there’s no way I’m getting any customers in this weather, might as well start showing you the ropes.”

* * *

As expected for his lunch hour, as soon as Ren so much as looks in the stranger’s way, two blond students approach him, “Hey!” Ann waves at him with a wide smile on her face, “Weather’s gotten kinda better today, so we were wondering if maybe you wanted to go to the courtyard for lunch?”

“It’s almost always rainin’ in this town, and when it’s not rainin’ its gloomy as hell,” Ryuji informs him as Ann links arms with him and practically drags him out of the class before he even gives his opinion on the matter. Not that he thought it would’ve made any difference at all, “So, apart from that one time we met, I’ve been hearin’ some stuff about you,” Ryuji changes the topic as they walk through the hall, “You moved in from the city, yeah?”

Ren nods once but when the other two fall quiet, he realises he needs to elaborate on that. He breaks the awkward silence through a fake cough before explaining, “Yeah, my parents job requires them to move around a lot this year, so they figured it be easier for them to leave me with an old family friend… I, um, was actually born here but I moved away when I was little, so I don’t remember much.”

Ann nods along as she listens to him talk, “Oh yeah? Well then, I suppose we should be welcoming you back instead of introducing you to the place! If you want we can show you some of our favourite spots in town?”

While Ren could certainly use some more information on the town outside of the short tour Futaba gave him the day before, he knows that his best chance for even getting a shot at talking to the stranger will be if he waits for him in the café and serves him his coffee, which he can’t do if he’s out on the town with these two, “Sorry, Sakura-san wants me to help him, it might be busy today.”

“Leblanc’s never busy,” Ryuji rolls his eyes, “Boss probably is gonna have you on wash duty or somethin’. Which sucks but if you’re free later…” he pulls his phone out, pulls up his contacts list and creates a new contact. He passes the phone over to his new friend who he’s already nicknamed ‘RenRen’ in his phone, “I’ll send you a text and you can just call me on that number. Oh! I can send you some other numbers too if ya want them.”

Ann opens her mouth to object, but when she thinks on it a bit more, she unlinks her arms from Ren and fold her own, “Actually yeah it’s probably easiest. I doubt any of the others are gonna worry if you just say you got their numbers from Ryuji.”

Ryuji rolls his eyes again and takes his phone back from Ren once he’s done putting in his number, “Yeah, like they’ll even notice it with all the shit that’s going on this year,” he pushes open the front door and walks towards the nearby bench, and while Ann follows him, Ren remains standing in the door.

“What’s going on this year?” Ren asks, hoping that this loud-mouthed student would finally tell him what the hell it is that everyone seems to be so weird about. Unfortunately for him, it turns out that Ann’s main job in today's plan of distracting Ren is to keep Ryuji in line.

“Well… It’s because we’re third years!” She exclaims though it’s obvious from her exaggerated tone that she’s lying, or at least that she knows that's not what Ryuji was talking about, “Y’know, there’s entrance exams, final year exams, figuring out what we wanna do with our lives… so everyone’s probably going to be super stressed about that all year!”

“Right…” Ren drops any questioning he has in his head, fully expecting more lies and deception if he does voice his concerns out loud.

He’ll play along with this charade, at least until he can get back to the café and meet the stranger there once more.

* * *

When Ren walks into the café that afternoon, he’s met with disappointment when he discovers that the stranger isn’t there at all. Probably decided to go home. Ren hopes its not to avoid him. Having the stranger come to the café was the only way he could contact the guy without constantly getting pulled away by the other classmates.

In his disappointed state, Ren barely even notices how long he’d been standing at the door until Sojiro starts clearing his throat loudly, “You gonna stand around there all day, or you gonna let my customers through?”

Ren turns his head to look back at the door, and while no one is actually there waiting for him to move he walks over to the stairs with his head down. One last idea comes to mind, so he turns around and looks at Sojiro again, “There’s a guy who comes here as a regular, right? He’s in my class.”

“Huh?” Sojiro looks away from the TV, “Uh, yeah, you could say that,” he rubs the back of his head, “You’re talking about Akechi Goro, right? You have a problem with him?”

Ren shakes his head, struggling to hide a smile. Good. So he wasn’t going completely crazy… unless Sojiro was also messing with him somehow just to hammer home how weird this town was, “I don’t… he won’t talk to me or anyone else. The rest of the students act like he doesn’t exist…”

Sojiro scratches his beard as he hums, eyes closed while he thinks of a way to reply to Ren, “They’re still doing that, huh? Well, Goro’s been reserved and keeping to himself for the past few months or so. Seems pretty angry too. Couldn’t tell you why though. He comes in for coffee, does his homework or reads, then leaves. It’s not uncommon for him to be quiet these days so I wouldn’t take it personally.”

* * *

Class becomes a little different when the next day instead of Kamoshida, Kawakami walks into the class as soon as the bell rings. She starts the class off with an announcement, “Kamoshida-san has called in sick today and as of right now he is not quite sure when he will next be returning. For the time being, I will be teaching this class. I’ll need to do roll call since I’m not familiar with all of you quite yet, so we’ll skip all the formalities, okay?”

Just when their replacement starts calling out their names, Goro gets out of his seat and leaves the classroom and the teacher doesn’t tell him to sit back down at all, nor does she call out his name of the register. It’s becoming almost normal for Ren, and while he sees the inconsistencies, he no longer questions them.

Classes are fairly tedious, and Ren can’t help but watch as the drops of rain fall one on top of the other and drip down the window as his sole source of entertainment. Kawakami doesn’t care at all, and when he looks around, neither do most of the students. He tries writing some notes in his notebook, but it all ends up being scribbles and doodles of cats instead. Eventually Goro does come back, and during study hall, his scratching into his old desk with a pen begins to get on Ren’s nerves. Before he thinks about commenting on it, the lunch bell rings and Goro is, as usual, the first to leave the classroom.

Ren moves quickly before anyone can intercept him and ends up at Goro’s desk wondering what the hell the guy was scratching into his desk. In some way, he hopes it’s jut something weird, something a bored, angry kid like him would carve into his desk. If the guy was a nutjob then at least it would explain how the teachers and students would avoid engaging with him.

What he doesn’t expect, is a question, seemingly posed to the entire classroom, or perhaps even Goro himself;

**WHO IS DEAD?**

“You haven’t heard anything weird about Kamoshida, have you?” Makoto makes Ren jump with her question, completely avoiding looking down at the desk, “As countermeasures officer I need to know where each member of the classroom is at all times, including the teachers.”

Ren shakes his head, “I haven’t heard anything, sorry.”

Makoto sighs deeply and folds her arms, “Yeah, don’t take this the wrong way but I wasn’t expecting much. Perhaps you might know then why Minako didn’t come to school today?”

“She didn’t?” Not that Ren was paying any attention to any of his other classmates. He could barely even remember what the girl even looked like, “I don’t know her very well, so no.”

“Right… Thanks anyway,” she turns around, but speaks before she leaves him, “If you have any information, I’ll be out of school for the rest of the afternoon but just pass it on to Mitsuru or Yukari and they’ll let me know.”

Without a word, Ren nods and Makoto walks out of the classroom to go find Kawakami. At least today people seem to be less interested in Ren and who he spends his time with but even then he tries to sneak out of the classroom so he won’t be disturbed when making his way to the rooftop.

To his surprise no one follows him and just as he hoped he finds Goro standing in the same place as he did when they last met up here, “If Sojiro admits your existence, you must be real.”

Goro shakes his head without looking at him, still looking down at the playground bellow and holding an umbrella in the other to keep himself dry. Deciding not to get drenched, Ren remains under the little roof hanging over the entrance.

“I don’t know whether it’s your stupidity or your rebellious nature that forces you to break the rules, but you should not be up here talking to me.”

Ren would be insulted by that if he didn’t already partially believe that the guy was crazy himself, “No on wants to tell me what’s going on, so of course I’m going to be curious and try to find out for myself.”

“Stupidity it is then,” Goro decides, and after a few minutes of silence between the two, he ends up shrugging, “I suppose it makes little difference now. So far no one has ever disappeared from this town and made it back alive. Especially not if they go to class 3-C.”

“And you’re not going to tell what that’s about, huh?” Ren asks and gets silence back in return, “Didn’t think so,” he mutters to himself and walks back inside. Well, he tried to talk to the guy, and if he’s still going to be saying crazy stuff like that, then Ren wants nothing part of it.

No wonder everyone avoids the guy who can’t stop talking about death.

* * *

Upon returning back to the class, Ren finds Ryuji and Ann hanging around his desk with Futaba, a girl with very fluffy brown hair and a guy who Ren had overheard discussing art with Mitsuru the other day. Wondering about what was going on, he takes a few steps there, joining the conversation.

“They asked Minato to go to the faculty office and he’s not been back since,” Ann tells him, “It’s about Minako, it’s gotta be.”

Ryuji shakes his head, “Nah, I’m sure she’s fine. There’s no way somethin’ happened to her.”

Futaba punches him in the arm, albeit lightly since Ryuji doesn’t react to it at all, “You idiot! You can’t say stuff like that! It’s a total death flag!”

The girl with the fluffy hair shakes her head, “Discussing this is pointless… and possibly disrespectful to Minato. We owe the class better than discussing issues such as these… at least out in public like this.”

The guys nods, “I agree. Let’s refrain from spreading rumours right now until we know more information. I’d rather our minds didn’t wander.”

A student not showing up to class was nothing weird in Ren’s world. Kids skipped school all the time, or were simply ill or had more important obligations, and yet half of the group already assumed the absolute worst. Maybe Goro’s words on the rooftop weren’t so strange after all.

Not to this class anyway.

* * *

Classes are a little more interesting in the afternoon when they end up going to one of the chemistry labs to do some experiments. In the back, Kawakami ends up telling off some guy called Junpei and another called Yosuke after they started playing around with different chemicals in an attempt to create what they claimed was a love potion. The rest of the class goes about doing the assigned work as partners, except Ren who of course didn’t have one and was told to do things by himself.

However it does leave Goro standing next to him and moving the equipment he needs closer or pointing to the chemical Ren needed to use next when he realised the other was stuck. He never said a word, but when it got down to writing out equations, Goro would specifically leave his notebook open on the right page while he went to get paper towels, or a water bottle, or just pretended to put something into his calculator.

Maybe he was a nice ghost after all. Or at least he wanted to make sure his partner didn’t fuck up too much, bringing his mark down too. If he even got marks for the classes he was in.

The bell rings soon after they return to the classroom and the students pick up their belongings. Ren returns to his desk and doesn’t rush with putting his things away. There’s no reason to anymore. He won’t get more out of Goro, the other students are desperate to keep their mouths shut and are all distracted by Kamoshida and Minako not coming to school today anyway.

“Hey,” Ryuji says when he gets to Ren’s desk with Ann, both of their bags already slung over their shoulders, “You live at Leblanc right now, yeah? We were thinking of getting curry there today, if that’s cool with you.”

Ren shrugs, “Not my café, can’t stop you from coming in even if you tried.”

Ann giggles, “Oh come on, don’t be like that! What Ryuji meant to say was, we wanted to try and get to know you a little more. We’re worried you might be feeling left out or something and that would suck so… wanna hang with us today?”

Ren nods once, “Okay.”

They leave the classroom, and it’s not long before Ryuji finds a topic for them to talk about, “So, how does our school compare to your old one? I know you’ve only been here a few days but you gotta have some sorta opinion about the place now.”

“It’s weird,” Ren doesn’t hide his opinion, “The town, the school, the people…All really weird… but it keeps things interesting I guess.”

Ann giggles again as they pass through the school gates, “Well weird can be good, right? You’ll get used to it though… even if we’re only here till graduation.”

“You won’t stay here?” Ren asks them both. Sure, there’s not much to do in this town but he was pretty sure everyone who lived in this town had been living here since they were born.

Ann shakes her head, “No, I want to go experience stuff beyond this town. My parents are away constantly on all sorts of trips around the world since they’re fashion designers. I’m actually a little jealous, I’d love to go to Paris one day, maybe even New York… Milan would be amazing too.”

Ryuji rolls his eyes, “Way too far for me. And I don’t know enough English to get around those places.”

Ann raises her eyebrow, “You know they don’t all speak English in Milan and Paris, right?”

Ryuji scratches his head, clearly trying to come back with a witty comeback but it doesn’t get there quick enough. Eventually, he gives up and folds his arms, “Yeah? Well… whatever! It's more likely they'll understand English than Japanese! But going back to his question, yeah, I don’t think I’ll stay here either. I might just move to Tokyo or somethin’ so I can still come visit and help my mum out but otherwise… there ain’t nothing for me to do here.”

“Futaba told me there's a model gun shop here. You could work there,” Ren suggests before adding jokingly, “You look the type.”

Ann breaks out laughing and Ryuji throws his fist into the air, “H-hey! What’s that supposed to mean?”

They stop at a bridge while Ann calms down and Ren tries his hardest not to smile too much at his own joke, “I’m just kidding.”

Ryuji’s expression softens, and he too begins to laugh a little, patting Ren on the shoulder, “Nah I know man. You don’t gotta worry about offendin’ me. We’re friends now, yeah?”

Ren nods with a small smile, “Yeah, we’re frie-,”

“OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT?!”

Ann’s shriek interrupts Ren as she points to something down in the river.

Although, something isn’t quite how Ren would phrase it.

Because after seeing Minako’s heavily bruised face poking out of the water as her dead body floats down the river, he’s certain he’ll never forget what she looked like ever again.


	2. April II

A week goes by and no one in class brings up the empty desk in the classroom, or how Kawakami seemed to have replaced Kamoshida more permanently as their homeroom teacher. There’s days when Ren starts to think that the floating body they found in the river was just a dream made up from all the strange circumstances he’d encountered in the town, but all it takes is a look at Ann’s pale face or Ryuji’s empty look to know it wasn’t a dream.

But even then it wasn’t a dream. It was a nightmare he and his new friends had to live with.

Minato doesn’t show up in school till Monday and even when he does he seems to ignore all of his friends, sitting down quietly at his desk.

Goro doesn’t even show his face at all though given some of the other student’s reluctance to study in the library Ren has a feeling that that’s where he’ll find him.

During lunch, Makoto asks everyone to stay in the class and only then is Ren’s worst theory confirmed,

“As you may have all noticed already, Minako has not been attending classes. Last week some students found her body in the river, and while she was rushed to the hospital, the doctors could do nothing to save her. If you require counselling of any kind, please refer to Yuakri and she may be able to direct you to the right people. There is also doctor Maruki, who has allowed walk-in counselling for our class.”

“It’s started…” Ren hears Yuuki whisper, and when he looks around the classroom, most of the students aren’t hiding their clenched fists or the tears building up in their eyes.

“As for mister Kamoshida,” Makoto continues, the only person in the room save for Ren who’s maintaining some level of restraint, “The police took him in for questioning regarding Minako’s disappearance and subsequent murder. However, last night they uncovered his body in a jail cell. According to my sister, it’s likely that his crimes were leaked to his fellow inmates.”

As soon as Makoto’s finished, someone screams in the classroom, and looking for the source of the scream, Ren and his classmates end up staring at Yukiko, who in that moment stood up from her seat and ran out of the classroom. No one attempts to stop her, although Akihiko, Ken, Shinji and Haru end up leaving the classroom as well.

“It can’t be… it can’t be…” sitting a desk away from her, Ren hears Hifumi whispering to herself with wide eyes, clutching tightly onto her desk, “We did everything right…”

Still standing at the front of the classroom, Makoto manages to eventually catch Ren’s eye and points to the door. The clear message is easily received by him, and he gets out of his desk, following her. Makoto walks down the hall with no explanation and enters the abandoned classroom where Ren had gotten his desk a couple of weeks prior. Only when she closes the door does she turn around and speak, “You realise now what’s at stake, don’t you?”

At stake? For what? How was he supposed to know when everyone was still being incredibly cryptic about everything?

Ren shakes his head, “How could I? You’ve all been playing games with me, expecting me to behave one way or another while treating Goro like some sort of… infestation. You’re avoiding him, acting like he’s not there and now I’m supposed to think that somehow he’s the reason Minako and Kamoshida are dead?”

Makoto clenches her fist, but she barely even replies to any of his questions, or clarifies what she meant by any of that, “I told you, I’d explain everything once this month is over. Right now there are far too many things I have to deal with because of what you’ve done. Maybe I should’ve pushed you harder but once the class starts to point fingers I know they won’t be directed at me. You’re the one who failed us, and that’s exactly what they’ll think.”

Ren wants to shout back at her, tell her that he can’t be the one to blame because he still doesn’t even know what happened and why whatever did happen would be his fault. But if he didn’t get his answers from her or anyone else before, he’s not going to get them now.

So he storms back into the classroom but for the first time since he got there no one even seemed to notice his presence.

* * *

In all of his time here, Ren hadn’t felt as lonely as he did walking back to Leblanc. Every day he’d have either Futaba or one of his classmates walk him right up until the street where the café was situated, after which he’d either help Sojiro, do his homework, or game with Futaba. This time, however, it seemed that Futaba had already left and even as he waited for his friends at the gate, Ryuji and Ann both completely ignored him, with Ann briefly looking him in the eye before lowering her head to look at the ground.

Ren worries it might get even worse when the only person who seems to be at the café is Goro and not even Sojiro seems to be present while his classmate sits in his usual seat and calmly drinks coffee. It’s not like Ren wants to be in on the ignoring, but considering the guy almost never answered him Ren walks right past him and decides to dump his bag in one of the booths before making himself some coffee, right before he starts on his homework.

“Sojiro has a house call with social services at the moment. It’s nothing you need to concern yourself with as it happens fairly regularly considering how many children he’s responsible for now,” Goro suddenly speaks up, throwing Ren off and almost causing him to drop the pot of hot coffee he was holding.

Ren puts the pot down before replying to Goro, “Are you speaking to me now because of what happened today? Everyone else is ignoring me just like they ignored you.”

“Yes,” Goro answers immediately before setting down his cup of coffee and brushing some hair out from his eyes, “Makoto still hasn’t explained the situation to you, has she? I suppose then I’m not fully to blame for what happened then.”

Intrigued by Goro’s sudden interest in speaking to him, Ren sets his cup of coffee down on the bar in front of the empty seat next to his classmate, “Will _you_? You wouldn’t start talking to me otherwise, right?” He asks as he goes around the bar and takes a seat.

Goro reaches for a spoon and begins to gently stir the liquid in his cup, “Do you believe in curses?” Goro sees Ren shaking his head in the corner of his eye and continues while staring at the coffee, “I’m sceptical myself… except for when it comes to this town. More specifically, class 3-C.”

“Are you talking about the Calamity?” Ren asks for clarification. He’d heard about it in passing a few times, but any time he asked Ann or Ryuji or Futaba they’d become silent or change subjects. Even Sojiro didn’t seem comfortable with explaining it to him, and he knew Makoto wouldn’t until May.

Goro nods slowly, “That’s what it’s most commonly referred to as, yes. Others may call it the Curse of Class 3-C, and I feel that’s more self-explanatory. It’s due to the Calamity that Minako and Kamoshida died, because each month at least one person connected to Class 3-C dies.”

Half of Ren wants to leave, thinking that this whole time Goro was only speaking to him just to mess with him, but the other half believes him, the half that hears his tone of voice and watches his mannerisms, the half that had spent the last two weeks wondering what on earth was going on in this town. So, even if it’s a morbid joke Goro’s trying to play on him, Ren stays put and continues to listen.

Goro pauses, most likely to give time to Ren to process and figure out if he wants to hear more, but when the other doesn’t move, he continues, “There are different stories regarding how exactly this all began, but the one I heard goes like this; 44 years ago, a beloved student of Class 3-C tragically died in a fire. When the news was brought to the class the next day, one of the students stood up, pointed to their deceased classmates’ desk and said ‘but sir, he’s sitting right here. He is still with us.’ The students and even the teachers were so deeply in denial that they went along with this. They didn’t remove his desk from the class and acted like he was there. At the end of the year, during graduation they all took a photo, making an extra space for their missing friend. The photographer couldn’t see it, but as soon as they looked at the picture they noticed that their friend was no longer missing. He appeared in the photo alongside everyone else, smiling just as they were, but far paler, almost see-through. Over time the story changed. Some heard that the classmate was in fact a girl, others believe he died in a car accident, but what everyone agrees on is that a student who shouldn’t have been in the classroom suddenly re-joined them for that photo.”

“What does that have to do with the Calamity?” Ren asks, considering how it still didn’t explain why people were dying or why they treated Goro like he didn’t exist at all.

Goro keeps going, “The following year the new students of the class discovered that the class was short one desk. They thought nothing of it, simply an error on the register they didn’t notice. That year, every month at least one person connected to the class would die and the year after that the exact same thing would happen, always to the students of class 3-C. It wasn’t till a few years later that they realised it wasn’t that they were missing a desk, but an extra student had joined them. A former student of class 3-C that was already dead, but even they didn’t know it,” he stops stirring the spoon in his cup.

“Wouldn’t the classmates remember someone dying?” Ren interrupts with a question, and Goro immediately has an answer ready, clearly having expected that response to his story.

“That’s what the students at the time thought,” Goro tells him, “They thought if they uncovered the identity of the dead student then they would be free of the curse. However they quickly discovered that none of them could recall who wasn’t supposed to join their class and couldn’t tell the difference between any of the students. The dead student looked and behaved just like everyone else, and why wouldn’t they? Their memories are the same as everyone else’s, their skin isn’t any paler than any other living human, they’re just another classmate. It’s why it took so long to figure out that there was an extra student to begin with and that it might be the reason why class 3-C is cursed. As a result, the students began coming up with countermeasures.”

“That’s Makoto’s job, right?” Ren asks, recalling her introduction and self-proclaimed title of ‘head of countermeasures’, “She has to come up with ways to prevent the deaths?”

“Yes… and no,” Goro says and sets his spoon down so he can drink some of his cold coffee, “It would be quite the task for her to make sure no one dies. Her job more specifically is to come up with a way to stop the Calamity from occurring that year. In the past the class has tried changing its location, switching names, even adding more desks at the beginning of the year to account for the extra, but none of it worked. Students, parents, teachers, each month at least one of them died. Of course, claiming your class was cursed wasn't enough to convince the board to get rid of the classroom.”

Goro takes another brief pause to finish off his coffee, then leans over the bar to put the cup and spoon on the counter, before sitting back down and continuing, “That is until one day a student suggested a new strategy; if originally the class pretended that someone who was dead was actually alive, what if the class treated someone who is alive as someone who is dead.”

“Does it work?” Ren asks, already aware that Goro would then be that one student who is alive but treated otherwise, “You’re the dead student, but Minako and Kamoshida still died. So why does the class treat you that way?”

“It works fifty percent of the time,” Goro admits with a shrug, “They aren’t great odds, but it’s better than nothing, and the student is only dead for a year. The class chooses the student the previous year and from the first day of their final year all the students and teachers pretend that the student is not there. It seems that it still works if a parent or friend from outside the school talks to that person, although the town in general knows of this curse and prefers not to interact with the dead student as a precaution.”

“Why were you picked?” Ren interrupts yet again. Whether he agreed to it or not, whether it saves lives or not, it still seemed cruel to ignore a classmate like that.

“I wasn’t picked,” Goro turns and looks Ren in the eye, “I chose this for myself.”

* * *

_Kamoshida glances around the silent classroom, waiting for someone, anyone to come forward, but no one seem to nominate themselves, “It has to be done you know. If you don’t choose someone, I’ll nominate them myself. So then, which one of you is gonna sacrifice themselves for the good of the class?” He sighs and looks down at the list before trying to goad the students into offering to take up the task themselves, “Look, if you’re chosen, I’ll mark your tests a little better and I’ll turn a blind eye if you don’t feel like coming to class. It’s the same deal we give every year, I’m sure you’ve heard about it.”_

_More silence follows as no one answers the question. How could they? Why would anyone in their right mind want to be dead for a year?_

_Someone who had clearly lost theirs, of course._

_Goro stands up and without hesitating, strides over to the teachers stand. He picks up the register in front of him and drives a perfect red line with the teacher’s marker through his name, then silently goes back to his seat with everyone’s eyes on him._

_“G-Goro!” One of the students cries out, “You’re nominating yourself?!”_

_“Isn’t this the first time someone actually nominated themselves?!”_

_“You’d have to be crazy to do that!”_

_Goro shakes his head, “No, you just have to be enough of an unlikeable asshole with nothing to lose. If being ignored for a year is what it’ll take to ensure everyone stays alive,” he folds his arms and looks down, “Then so be it. I’ll be the extra student of class 3-C.”_

_Kamoshida silences the class, but even he knows how crazy it is. While it’s common courtesy to ask, no one has ever willingly taken up the job of the extra, “Are you sure about this? Once the year starts there’s no going back. Every single person here will act like you don’t exist, including your teachers. You cannot interact with anyone, nor will anyone interact with you. It will be like you never existed.”_

_Goro responds with a little snort, “Thank you for your concern, but I’ve gone through much worse. Besides, this will be the perfect opportunity for me to put a stop to all of this once and for all,” his grip on the sleeve of his jacket tightens, “No one in class 3-C will die next year, you have my word.”_

* * *

“It’s not your fault Minako and Kamoshida are dead,” Ren tries to comfort him, and Goro nods along, agreeing. It throws Ren off a little, since he was fairly certain his classmate hadn’t come to class because he was feeling bad about that. Even if it was only announced today, the rumours of Minako’s death were going around and even as the extra Goro would’ve heard about it.

“Of course it isn’t. The countermeasure has an extremely high chance of failing even without you talking to me,” Goro gets out of his seat and picks up his briefcase from the table next to him, “Nevertheless, our fellow classmates will be quick to point the finger at us. Hmm, perhaps it would have been for the best then if I really were dead.”

“What? What do you mean?” Ren asks before quickly shaking his head as the full implications of what he just said hit him, “Us?”

“You didn’t realise, did you?” Goro opens the door and the bells above him chime, “You will soon.”

* * *

Ren’s late to school the next day, a result of his alarm not going off and Futaba not coming by to check on him. He barely has time to say hi to Sojiro as he rushes out the door and sprints to school.

Why didn’t Futaba wake him up? Ren had gotten so used to her calling him or even nudging him awake he probably didn’t even think of setting an alarm the night before. Maybe she was late herself and didn’t have time to come by Leblanc herself? She couldn’t be ignoring him like she’d been ignoring Goro, right? Ren wasn’t the extra.

He opens the back door of his classroom a little too loudly and apologises for his tardiness. Kawakami doesn’t look up from her book and doesn’t even acknowledge his presence, and the students don’t make any effort to move their belongings when he tries to get to his desk.

Pulling out his notebook and pencil case from his bag, he leans slightly towards Yuuki and whispers, “Did I miss a lot?”

There’s no response while Yuuki continues to read from his book in silence. Hoping it was his own voice being too quiet for the other to hear, Ren tries again, “Could I borrow your notes after class?”

Nothing.

Not so much as a nod or shake of his head, Yuuki diligently sticks to looking down at his book.

The best Ren can do is just look over to Yuuki’s book to find the right page so he himself can read the right material during study hall.

It’s one thing to try and find out what exactly is happening when you aren’t involve, and another when you’re being targeted. Ren won’t give up this easily. At least Goro will talk to him, he knows that now. Shame he didn’t come to class today either.

Except now that the teacher doesn’t care for Ren’s lateness, he wonders if he can get away with as many things as Goro could. So, without raising his hand or getting the teachers attention, Ren closes his book, stands up and leaves the classroom. No one tries to stop him, no one so much as look at him when he opens the door and leaves.

He retraces his footsteps from that time Ann took him to the library and goes inside. The library is silent, save for the sound of one person flipping through the pages of a book. It’s Goro, sitting in the middle, looking through what appeared to be an old yearbook, gloved hand running through his fringe. He doesn’t even look up to see who it is, but unlike the rest, he does talk to Ren, “I’m busy, Ren. I thought I entertained you enough yesterday.”

“Why is everyone ignoring me?” Ren asks him, ignoring Goro’s snide remark. The other still doesn’t look up, eyes quickly moving over the names in front of him before moving onto the next page.

“I’ve exposited enough at you,” Goro tells him, voice just as harsh as before, “I’m sure you can figure it all out on your own, but until then… well, I don’t owe you any favours and have no obligation to tell you anything either way.”

“You’re the only person who’ll talk to me,” Ren points back towards the classroom, “And by the sound of it, I’m the only one who’s willing to interact with you, making me the closest thing you can have to a friend right now. Least you could do is not be a dick to me.”

Finally, Goro looks up from the book, “What I could do is figure out how to stop this thing before more people die. If you want to help me with that, then sit down. Otherwise I’ll have to ask you to leave and stop interrupting me. This is a library after all, not a cafeteria where discussion roams free,” he glances over to the sign telling the students to be quiet when working here.

Fine then. If Goro won’t say anything, maybe talking to someone more vulnerable might yield results. Ren doesn’t want to do it, but if he finds the right person they might spill out exactly why everyone is ignoring him now too.

Going back to class was just going to bring him down, so Ren sits down on the floor just outside the door and hopes for the best. He’d corner someone after the bell rang and get them to tell him what was happening if he had to but luckily he doesn’t need to wait that long. An hour after he’d been sitting there, the door opens. Haru steps out of the classroom, sees Ren and immediately looks away, then tries to fast walk to the bathroom.

He doesn’t manage to catch her before that and being ignored wasn’t an excuse to suddenly be creepy and barge into the women’s bathroom, so he just stands outside the classroom door while waiting for her, knowing she’d have to go back to the class sooner or later.

A few minutes pass by, and when Haru leaves the bathroom, she’s visibly paler as she makes her way to the classroom. This time however, Ren blocks the door and forces her to interact with him, “If you want me to move, you’re going to have to answer one of my questions. All I wanna know is why everyone’s ignoring me. I’m not Goro, I wasn’t even involved in this.”

“Ask Makoto,” Haru whimpers while looking down at the floor and away from him.

“I’ve tried, she’s ignoring me too. I need a better answer.”

“I-I’ts…” Haru stutters, “It’s because you’re dead too!”


	3. May I

The first few days of being treated like he doesn’t exist are rough. No one talks to him before school or during lunch, and by the time he’s packed up his stuff after class ends, all of the friends he made the weeks before disappear into thin air as if they were never in the class to begin with. Makoto barely even looks his way, Futaba always tries her best to avoid in him when she occasionally runs into him on her way to school, and Goro is nowhere to be found. Ren wouldn’t even have minded spending time with him. At this point any contact would be deeply appreciated.

Even the teachers don’t take notice of him, as Ren himself had tested by getting up in the middle of class occasionally only to walk to the closet in the back, grab a random book and sit back down. One sunny day he leaves the classroom entirely and spends the rest of the day playing games on his phone up on the roof. He continues this pattern, occasionally bringing his homework with him or some books to pass the time.

However the sunny days end, forcing Ren to stay inside and come up with another hideout. When he leaves the class, he considers going to the abandoned classroom from which he grabbed his desk, but the air surrounding it even then had felt off and just the idea of sitting alone in there for the next three hours filled him with dread. He chooses to go in the opposite direction and comes across the library door. Thinking it’s his best option, Ren opens the door only to find that the librarian was gone and the place was occupied by only one other person; the exact person Ren was hoping he’d eventually run into.

“I’m dead,” he informs Goro, who just as last time, doesn’t look up from his book.

“Hello dead, I’m busy right now,” Goro deadpans and flips over the page, “Although I do sympathise. It’s not an easy thing to adjust to.”

“I can help,” Ren says, pointing at the book, “You’re looking for something, right?” He asks and gets Goro’s attention, “Just tell me what we’re looking for.”

The other dead student gets out of his seat, crosses the room and pulls out multiple books from a shelf. He sets them down on the table in front of Ren, then sits back down, “These are some of the yearbooks of the previous years. It is believed that the dead student is a former student of class 3C. If we find someone missing from the previous photos or registers, then that would be the most likely person.”

“But we won’t know the names if they’re missing,” Ren points out as he sits down and grabs the first book from the top, “How can we compare it to our own class register?”

Goro shakes his head and looks back down at his book, “We don’t. The Calamity only affects those in class 3C and the people closest to them. Meaning that it wouldn’t affect those who survived class 3C and graduated.”

Still a little confused, Ren opens up the book and flips to the page on class 3C of that year, finding an old black and white photo with a list of names underneath. Some of the names were crossed out, although none seemed to be missing from the list, “You want to track down and find the people from those classes and see if they remember who’s missing? It’s a long shot, you know.”

Goro nods, “To be completely honest, I don’t expect this to yield great results, though at the moment I don’t have any better ideas. However since I have the free time I may as well put it to good use and at least try to uncover the truth.”

“You won’t find it that way,” another voice says, one coming from the door of the library, “and you’re wasting your time,” the boy says when he walks over to their table, “If it was that easy, the Calamity probably would’ve ended decades ago.”

With a thud, Goro closes his yearbook and frowns at the newcomer, “And I suppose it entertained you to watch me pour over this while I wasted my time? You already looked through them yourself, haven’t you?” The other guy shrugs, “I’d say the lack of dust on any of these is proof enough.”

The guy shakes his head and folds his arms, “I couldn’t tell you earlier because of the rule, but you know that already.”

Ren raises an eyebrow. If he meant the rule of not talking to the dead students then why was he talking to either of them now that the class collectively decided to ignore both of them? Caught in the middle of this petty argument, Ren chooses to stay silent though their classmate picks up on his confusion quickly.

“It’s a waste of time to act like the Calamity hasn’t already started and pretending that everything is fine will just result in more people getting hurt,” he explains, “That being said, I wouldn’t be opposed to cooperate with you on this.”

Goro huffs and shakes his head, “Save me the pity, Naoto. You may have more experience as the first Detective Prince, but that does not mean you’re better at the job than I am. Our investigation techniques are too different and we are more likely to get in each other’s way than properly work together. I’m sure you understand that. As you have said there is no stopping the Calamity now and my interest in finding the dead student stems from morbid curiosity, unlike you. Our goals are simply too different for our potential partnership to work.”

Naoto sighs and turns around, “If that’s what you insist on,” he leaves them, but stops at the door to look back and leave them with one final thought, “You’re wrong, Goro. I said the Calamity has begun. I never said it couldn’t be stopped.”

He closes the door behind him, leaving Ren alone with Goro once again, “What just happened?”

“Naoto Shirogane happened,” Goro says as he stands up and starts putting the yearbooks away, “She _was_ referred to as the Detective Prince until the next one came along and stole the title… or rather, was given the title of the second advent of the Detective Prince, making her the first. That being said, she cares less for titles and more for actually solving cases.”

Correcting himself mentally and switching pronouns, Ren keeps asking questions while Goro cleans up, “If she’s the first one, who’s the second-,” he cuts himself off as it dawns on him. There’d been only two other people who seemed at all interested in solving the case, and only one person that Ren had seen actually taking actions towards that goal, “It’s you. How did you get the title?”

“By being good at my job,” Goro answers, picking up the books in front of Ren, “Naoto is from a family of detectives; it was her legacy to become a detective and she outdid herself by solving multiple cases across the country. I wasn’t lucky enough to be born into a prestigious family but I was lucky enough to be given the opportunity to solve some high-profile cases when I lived in Tokyo.”

“You lived in Tokyo?” Ren continues but it seems to be one question too many regarding Goro’s personal life as the other withdraws and changes topics entirely without so much as making up an excuse.

He leaves one yearbook in front of Ren and gets to the photo and register of class 3-C. Some names were crossed out, but definitely not enough to cover an entire school year if one person was supposed to have died each month, “I believe this is what Naoto was referring to. In 1990, it was clear that the Calamity had begun, however, by all accounts it appears that it came to an abrupt end in August. Unfortunately no one has been able to give a reason for why it stopped in that particular year and previous countermeasures officers have dismissed it as a fluke,” he closes the book and puts it on the shelf, then turns back around just as the school bell rings, “It appears that we are out of time for today. You live in Leblanc, correct?” Ren nods, “I can walk back with you, if that’s what you’d like.”

* * *

The walk back is completely silent, and yet it still feels far better for Ren than the last week did. Even the silent company was better than no company at all, especially when his companion offered to share his umbrella and spare Ren from getting soaked in the rain. At one point, Futaba quickly passes by them with her head hung low and it’s the only time Goro makes any noise on the way there in the form of a sigh.

When they reach the door of Leblanc, Ren hides under the small roof over the door and stays outside when he doesn’t see Goro following him in, “You’re not coming in? I’m not keeping you away from here, am I?”

Goro shakes his head, “Perhaps another time. I need to catch up on the classes I’ve been missing and come up with another way of approaching the problem…” he looks down as he mutters some ideas that had just occurred to him, “If we looked at the previous dead students…” he keeps mumbling but Ren doesn’t quite catch the rest of it. After a few seconds of mumbling, Goro looks up again as if he had snapped out of his trance, “Can I count on you to show up to the library tomorrow?”

“It’s not like the class will miss me anyway,” Ren replies with a wry tone.

“Then I will see you there. Enjoy the rest of your day,” Goro nods and walks in the direction to where Ren assumed he lived.

Once Goro’s out of sight, Ren steps into the café and brushes what little rain got on him off of his jacket. The café is empty, as it always was on a rainy day, so Ren uses the opportunity to sit in one of the booths and do his homework there. Sojiro doesn’t pay him any mind and continues reading his newspaper while the other works.

A couple of hours later a plate of curry shows up in front of him, followed by a cup of hot coffee. Ren looks up from his work and confirms that no one else had come to the café in the time that he’d been hyperfocused on his studies. Not even Futaba showed up to join him for dinner, or if she had it must have been just to take a plate back with her to her and Sojiro’s house.

“Futaba stopped coming,” Ren points out to Sojiro, “So did Goro.”

“You started talking to him?” Sojiro asks but doesn’t touch on the matter with Futaba, “And he’s replying to you.”

“Only now that I’m also being ignored by everyone, yeah,” Ren informs the café owner, “Why is he…” Ren struggles to find the words. Eccentric? No. Weird? Definitely not. Stubborn…?

“Why does he act like he’s always the smartest guy in the room while also clearly filled with self-loathing?” Sojiro summarises for him and Ren only nods in response. Sojiro sighs, setting down the crossword puzzle he had been trying to work out just before, “There’s a lot about the kid you don’t know, and I’m not sure he’d appreciate me telling you all of it. I guess what I’m entitled to tell you is that he’s technically under my care.”

“Technically?” Ren repeats in the form of a question.

“Legally speaking, I’m the adult responsible for him,” Sojiro explains, “But last year he moved out from the house due to personal reasons and claims he’s better off not living with us anymore. He had the money to pay rent for his own place in a smal town like this from all the detective work he used to do and I didn’t think fighting him on it would be very effective either, so I let him. I’m glad he still comes here but he used to act like we were all family… now he’s just another regular, no matter how many times I tell him he’s welcome back home.”

“Did something happen?” Ren asks, assuming that there must’ve been something that pushed Goro away. Sojiro nods, but instead of explaining further, he gets out of his seat and goes to the kitchenette to wash up dishes.

Maybe Goro will let the truth slip eventually.

* * *

A big pile of yearbooks lands in front of Ren when he takes a seat at the same table in the library as the day before. Picking up the one from the top, Ren skips over to the 3-C class of that year, questionable look on his face clearly showing, “I thought you agreed with Naoto about the usefulness of looking through yearbooks.”

Goro gets his own pile of yearbooks and places them in front of his seat, “She was right in thinking that we would not be able to track down the individual people and ask them who is missing from the list due to the Calamity usually changing one’s memories. However that isn’t what I want to look for. Today I want to make a list of all the students that have died as a result of the Calamity.”

“That’s 44 years’ worth of records. What are you going to do with that information?” Ren asks but nevertheless he gets out his notebook and pencil-case from his bag.

“It is indeed,” Goro agrees and sits down behind the pile of books, “As a detective, I have access to police records and luckily the police here are far more diligent about keeping records than the Tokyo police department is. I’m hoping to see if there is some sort of pattern to do with the deaths and I can work from there.”

“You used to live in Tokyo?” Ren asks in an attempt to segway to the topic of Goro’s past, “Why did you move here?”

“That’s none of your concern,” Goro quickly cuts him off, “We’re here to investigate the Calamity, not my past,” with Goro behind the books, Ren can’t even read his expression, but after a brief pause, Goro’s tone lightens up, “perhaps I will answer your questions some other day, however, for the time being I’d rather solve this and prevent more deaths from happening.”

It’s a promise.

Sort of.

Not really, but it’s the best Ren’s gotten out of Goro so far. He accepts it and goes about his job of copying down the crossed-out names of the previous classes for Goro, along with their dates.

Enveloped in his task, Ren only notices it’s lunch when Goro suddenly appears at his side, chewing on an apple. Ren drops his pen, rubs his hand and looks up at him, “Are we even allowed to eat here?”

Goro shrugs and swallows what he was chewing on, “No one is going to tell us not to anyway. The canteen will be full of students who won’t speak to us and the roof is unavailable due to the rain. The entire school knows we’re here, and unless someone is desperate for a book they won’t find online, we won’t be disturbed either.”

Goro isn’t wrong and as bad as Ren would feel about eating here he’d feel a lot worse sitting on his own in the canteen or going back to the class just to eat. Just because he’s dead doesn’t make him invisible to the others and that felt like a dick move somehow. So he takes out his box with leftover curry from last night and carefully eats that after moving the books away.

“So you won’t even tell me anything during our break?” Ren asks now that they weren’t looking at the yearbooks.

Goro finishes off his apple, goes to throw it into a bin by the front door then walks back and sits down in the seat next to Ren instead of the one across from his where he’d been working, “I suppose if we’re both taking a break I can indulge you… I used to work in Tokyo, it’s where I became known as the Charismatic Detective Prince. This was in my last year of middle school and first year of high school. I quit working there and moved here for personal reasons, although both Naoto and I work for the police here from time to time. It’s especially useful in a town where an average of ten students die each year due to unnatural accidents. Anyway,” Goro says and stands up again, going to his regular seat, “That’s enough exposition for now. Let us resume our work.”

* * *

Ren finishes his list just five minutes before the bell rings and puts his last yearbook back on the shelf at the same time that Goro stands up from his desk and puts the yearbook back too, “You put in all the details, yes?”

Ren nods, “Why else do you think it took me that long? I’m not that slow, y’know?”

They retrieve their bags and leave the library together. Most of their classmates hadn’t even left the classroom yet but neither Ren nor Goro pay them any attention. Why should they when they weren’t going to talk to the two of them anyway.

At the entrance, Goro and Ren retrieve their umbrellas from a stand by the door and leave the school. The rain’s heavier than it was in the morning and it’s difficult to see very far but the sound of two students arguing gets Ren’s attention as well as Goro. They both stop and look on as they watch Shiho and Ann arguing.

“It’s just not fair! I don’t want to keep doing this!” Ann shouts back at Shiho as a response to whatever the other had said, “It’s already started anyway, and we have to treat them both like they’re dead?!”

“It’s for the best!” Shiho shouts back at her, “Don’t you think ignoring two of our classmates is better than having ten of our friends die?!”

“It’s not going to make a difference now that it’s already started!” Ann looks behind Shiho and sees the two guys standing nearby. She frowns and turns around, “I won’t be part of this, not anymore.”

“Ann! You can’t-!”

“I won’t!” She shouts again and runs out of the school gate. Just outside the gate she falls over when she slips on the wet pavement and her umbrella flies out of her hands. It lands on the other side of the street. She stands up, brushes off the mud from her jacket and in her recovery from the fall she doesn’t see the truck barrelling towards her, unable to control its speed.

The last thing Ren sees from her is the red umbrella flying across the street.


	4. May II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got too much into animal crossing and didn't realise last Monday happened 😅

No one talks to Ren when he walks into the classroom the morning after Ann’s funeral. This time he’s not worried that they’re ignoring him or treating him like a ghost. They refuse to even talk to one another, sitting in their respective seats despite there still being five minutes before class was meant to begin. Even Kawakami was here, sitting at her desk and looking out through the window at no particular object. It’s so quiet that Ren thinks he can hear the conversations going on in the other class.

What makes the situation even more uncanny is when Goro walks through the front door with his school bag in hand and walks to the back, apparently no longer interested in skipping classes and going to the library instead. Not like any of their research worked out anyway. Then again, if it was so simple then the Calamity would have ended decades ago. Instead it’s clear that there wasn’t any escaping it now.

Before he can reach his desk, Ryuji gets out of his seat and steps in front of him, blocking his way, “It’s your fault she’s dead,” Ryuji tells him but Goro doesn’t bat an eye.

“Class is starting soon and you’re in my way. If you wish to point fingers, please do so when we are both free,” Goro tells him nonchalantly and Ryuji shoves him. Goro drops his bag but catches himself on Hifumi’s and Junpei’s desks.

“You serious?! How can you be so calm?! Minako and Ann are both dead because you couldn’t pretend to be dead for even a week! You didn’t even last one goddamn week!” Ryuji shouts at him and Kawakami gets out her seat to stop the fighting.

“Sakamoto! Akechi! Stop this instance!”

“It’s not my fault,” Goro ignores Kawakami and continues antagonising Ryuji, “The Calamity already begun before I spoke a word to anyone. Besides, it’s hardly my fault that Makoto didn’t tell Ren the rules when that’s one of the few tasks she has,” Goro turns around and looks at her, “Ah yes, how is that investigation of yours going? Any progress on finding out how to stop us all from dying?”

“You bastard!” Ryuji shouts at Goro and tries to punch him, but at the last-minute Yusuke and Akihiko grab his arms and pull him away from the fighting, desks and chairs scraping against the wooden floors.

“Ryuji’s right!” Yosuke says from the other side of the classroom, standing up and pointing an accusing finger at Goro, “This ain’t Makoto’s fault! She tried her best, but you couldn’t keep your mouth shut!”

“Perhaps if someone had told Ren about the Calamity, he wouldn’t have had to say anything int the first place,” Hifumi counters, “It’s Ren’s fault Goro was forced to tell him to leave, therefore breaking the countermeasure.”

Yuuki gets out of his chair as well to make his point, “This isn’t Ren’s fault! How was he supposed to know why we were acting like everything was fine around him when one of us was supposed to be dead?!”

“Maybe if that asshole knew how to stay put, we wouldn’t be in this mess!” Kanji shouts from the back of the class, “We told him to follow us, didn’t we?!”

“Yeah, if he was innocent in all of this, then why is he staying silent?!” Junpei shouts at Ren, who's quietly sitting in his desk and looking down at his notebook. Being dead was maybe better than having all this attention thrown at him. Having everyone accuse him of being the reason for two students and a teacher dying was not a turn Ren expected his school year to take.

“Everyone! Stop it!” Mitsuru shouts and when all the attention is on her she glances towards the door where their classmate stood, waiting for the fighting to end.

Shiho looked nothing like herself. Dark circles under her eyes, puffy cheeks and ruffled hair, it was clear she hadn’t slept at all last night and had barely managed to stop crying just in time for class. Everyone goes back to their seats, acting as if nothing had happened while Shiho drags her feet over to her desk, taking much longer than anyone else to get there.

“Will you be alright? Perhaps you could ask to take the day off?” Aigis suggests when she passes by her, “I am certain all of the teachers will understand if you-.”

“Leave me alone,” Shiho asks monotonously and takes a seat at her desk. Once she’s sat down, Kawakami takes a deep breath and steps to the front of the class.

“Sakamoto, Akechi, I’d like the two of you to stay behind after class. As for the rest of you, you should know better than to point fingers. What happened is a tragedy, and we cannot fault anyone in this class for what has happened and what may yet come,” she says, looking at no student in particular. Ren still didn’t care to look up in case he was met with more glaring, “Fighting is only going to bring more pain, and in this instance, we have to look out for each other. With that being said… please open your books to page 56. Yoshizawa, if you could read the first paragraph please.”

* * *

“You didn’t disagree with Ryuji. Or well, you said you did, but if you really believed that you wouldn’t have said anything in the first place” Ren points out when he and Goro walk back home together. The rest of the day the two hadn’t left the classroom, even during lunch. Ren knew his reason was to avoid further accusation and ostracising, and while he was certain Goro would deny it, he thinks the other had the same reason for staying behind.

“I didn’t,” Goro confirms and takes a pause before continuing, “You worry that I’m blaming myself for Ann’s and Minako’s deaths, aren’t you? You needn’t do that.”

“So you don’t think you’re to blame?” Ren asks him, “Why antagonise Ryuji if you don’t think you’re at fault?”

“As it stands, the group is split on who to blame,” Goro begins his explanation, “Some believe it’s me, others think it’s you, some think Makoto didn’t do enough. It’s creating a lot of conflict, conflict results in fighting and fighting only increases the chance that someone will get hurt. If they all want to point fingers, don’t you think it’s better if they point it at the one individual who doesn’t care what happens to him? The one who already decided to be the victim?”

“You’re being a dick so everyone knows you’re the guy they should blame, and not me or Makoto?” Ren asks for clarification and Goro nods in agreement, “What if they want to fight you? Ryuji almost punched you right in front of Kawakami.”

“I can take it.”

Ren stops in his tracks, forcing Goro to stop and turn around as well, “You’re willing to take a beating just to stop people from dying?”

“It’s my way of looking out for the class,” Goro says nonchalantly.

“It’s your way of being an idiot,” Ren says, feeling a little too good about being on this side of the conversation for a change, “You can’t just take all of the blame, you can get hurt too you know.”

“Better me than someone else,” Goro turns back around and before Ren can argue with him on that point, Goro keeps talking, “I’ll be stopping by Leblanc this time. I’d like a break and Leblanc’s atmosphere has always been relaxing for me. Shall we?”

“So we’re just moving on?”

“Yes,” is Goro’s last response on the issue before completely changing topic when they resume their walk back, “I expected Kawakami to punish us both in some way. She merely told us off and made us apologise to each other, as insincere as it sounded from both Ryuji and I.”

“I guess we both exist again then,” Ren points out, considering no one was holding back on admitting that both he and Goro were actually in the classroom, “Are you going to come to class now?”

“I suppose I have no other choice,” Goro sighs and makes the turn to the street Leblanc was on, “That doesn’t mean I’ll be ending my investigation. Naoto has been able to continue hers and I will do the same until the Calamity ends. Now that you can resume your normal life I take it you won’t have time for me.”

Ren shakes his head and immediately disagrees with him, “No, I wanna help you if I can,” he can’t help it. Every time there’s been someone in trouble, Ren would rush to save them, even if there was no way he could do anything. It’s just how he behaved. A curse wasn’t going to stop him from trying to save lives here either.

“Very well,” Goro replies with almost no emotion in his voice, but a tiny smile that Goro immediately wipes off his face is enough to tip off Ren about his true feelings.

This guy really needed a friend that badly, huh?

They walk in silence the rest of the way, and Ren almost bumps into Goro when the other grabs the handle of the door but doesn’t open it, “What are they doing here?” He mutters to himself as Ren tries to look over his shoulder to see what Goro was talking about. There were definitely some people from his school inside, judging from their uniforms, but that’s all Ren could tell without being able to see them properly, “How eager are you to get into a fight outside of the classroom?”

“Ryuji?” Ren guesses and Goro nods, “We’d have to face him sooner or later. I doubt he came to Leblanc looking for a fight.”

“He might just end up getting one,” Goro mutters back before opening the door. He stops at the door when he grabs the attention of the four students lurking inside and puts his hand on his hips, “To what do I owe the displeasure?” He asks, scowling at them.

Futaba stands up first. She leaves her seat, walks over to Goro and to everyone’s surprise, pulls him into a big hug, “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to ignore you this whole time, but you know why I did it!” She says, nuzzling into his jacket.

Goro awkwardly sets his briefcase down onto the nearby chair without moving away from the hug, and when on of his hands is free, he pats Futaba on the head, “It’s not you who I’m upset with, Futaba. When I agreed to this, I knew what it meant for the two of us, and I should be the one to apologise for putting you through it all.”

“Huh?” Ren asks, looking between the two of them. Since when were they this close?

_‘He used to act like we were all family.’_

He’ll ask Goro about it later when the café isn’t full of people accusing either one of them of being responsible for the deaths of their fellow students.

The next to leave the booth is Haru, who walks over to Ren and bows her head when she’s just one step away, “I’m sorry as well! I should have stood up for you both in the class. I didn’t think you were responsible for any of this, but I stayed silent. Please, forgive me!”

Yusuke and Ryuji both leave the booth as well, Ryuji rubbing the back of his head while Yusuke shakes his head, “It should never have come to this, but neither of you are at fault,” Yusuke admits, then looks over to Ryuji as he waits for his apology.

“Yeah, I was just angry about what happened with Ann, but I shouldn’t have taken it out on you, Goro,” Ryuji says, looking down at the ground while Futaba lets go and moves away from the detective, “But it’s not an excuse for me to act shitty towards you.”

“Your shitty behaviour is justified,” Goro agree, fixing his jacket back up so it isn’t crumpled, “You and Ann were close, and I was supposed to be the one who prevented the Calamity from starting in the first place. Furthermore, I shouldn’t have antagonised you.”

Ryuji shakes his head and walks over to Goro. He extends his hand out towards him and waits for him to shake it, “Start over? Ann wouldn’t have wanted us to be fighting like this in the first place anyway.”

Goro takes Ryuji’s hand and shakes it, “Very well. Do I take it then that you’re all willing to accept my and Ren’s existence at school?”

Haru nods, returning back to the booth, “Yes. I can’t speak for the rest of the class, but we’ve come to the conclusion that treating you like the enemy may only worsen the situation. We don’t need more fighting among a tragedy.”

Everyone else returns to the booth while Goro takes a seat on the bar stool across from the booth. With nowhere left to sit, Ren walks around the booth and looks around for what he can do, only to realise Sojiro wasn’t even here to begin with.

“We asked Sojiro if we could have the café for today and he said he wasn’t expecting customers anyway so…” Futaba answers his thoughts quickly, “But we are kinda getting thirsty since we’ve been waiting for you two to get back. You know how to make coffee, right?” She asks Ren.

“Sojiro showed me some stuff…” Ren trails off and looks at the siphon in front of him, “But I haven’t had much practice.”

“Oh then you can practice on us!” Haru says excitedly, “I’ll be willing to pay for each attempt. I don’t want boss to be angry with you for trying.”

“Oh… that’s kind of you,” Ren mumbles while freaking out on the inside. It’s the first time he had to make coffee for someone without Sojiro’s supervision, and now he was supposed to tailor it to five other people?!

“No coffee for me man,” Ryuji says before Ren can get started, “Never really liked the stuff.”

Okay but four people wasn’t much better.

Goro points to the shelf with the beans, “I’ve never asked Sojiro about this, however I’ve sat here long enough to know some basics. If you’re stuck, just let me know and I will try to help you.”

“Say, Goro,” Yusuke begins while Ren turns to the shelf to find the right beans, “You’ve been spending a lot of time in the library, correct? Does that mean you have any leads about what could stop the Calamity?”

Goro turns on his seat and shakes his head, “unfortunately, I’ve had no such luck. I’ve been focussing on figuring out who the missing student is in hopes that maybe they know something, however I’m aware of how unlikely that is. Even if I do have any sort of proof, not only do I think that they won’t admit to it but I believe they themselves don’t even realise they are dead. The mystery would be much easier to solve otherwise.”

“So you got nothing?” Ryuji asks and Goro nods as a reply, “Dammit, we were kinda hoping you’d know somethin’ already… uh… not that that’s why we came over and apologised in the first place.”

“I understand your frustration,” Goro admits while Ren’s finally found what he was looking for and returns to the siphon, “This is worrying for me as well… That being said, I’m not the only detective on the case, although Naoto is being awfully silent about everything as well.”

“Naoto?” Futaba asks, “Think she might know something?”

“If she does, she won’t tell me,” Goro informs her, “However, perhaps she may be more willing to share if someone else asked her. If you’re interested in what she has to say, then you should try asking her.”

“Aren’t you curious about what she has to say?” Ren asks as he starts to brew the coffee, “We could go ask her?”

Goro turns around again to face him but takes a while to answer while he watches Ren’s expression. Eventually he sighs and backs down, “I am, but she probably won’t tell me if I simply ask her. She may be more inclined to speak if you’re there with me...”

“If you think it’ll help, then sure.”

“Awesome!” Ryuji exclaims with a smile, “We might actually progress somewhere if we work together!”

* * *

The next day is far more pleasant when the six of them all meet up before school and walk together. Now that he was part of a group again, school actually seemed like a pleasant place to go to. It helped that Goro was no longer being ostracised from the class either, even if Ren had a feeling the others might only want him around to solve the case.

Still he tried his best to make the other feel included, asking him for his opinion on this weeks episode of Neo Featherman when Futaba brought it up, or simply by standing on the outside of the group so he had to be between two people when they walked down the street.

Class was somewhat unusual when everyone was actually acting normal towards them, greeting the group as they passed by and even asking Goro and Ren if they started on the essay they were meant to do for history class. It was just another dull and mediocre school day and Ren couldn’t be happier to have returned to that normalcy from all of the previous doom and gloom.

However he does notice something odd when class starts, and students are missing again. Minako’s and Ann’s desk still were in the class and Ren guessed that no one was going to move them out till the end of the year but that was the only inconsistency. Naoto didn’t come to class, which was an issue considering Ren and Goro’s plans to speak with her, but Shiho wasn’t there either. As bad as he felt thinking it, Ren kind of hoped that it was because she was feeling unwell.

The alternative in this town was much worse.

The bell rings for lunch and Goro is at his desk within seconds, motioning towards the front of the class, “We need to talk to Chie and Yukiko. They’re friends with Naoto and might know where she is.”

“You’re not planning to ditch class again if she isn’t at school, are you? I don’t think Kawakami is gonna let us do that anymore,” He says, glancing to the teacher who was keeping a close eye on the two.

Goro shakes his head, “No, and I don’t think it’ll be necessary regardless. I saw Naoto come into school and I’ve been watching the courtyard since. Unless she left through a different route, she should still be in the building.”

“You weren’t paying attention in class?”

“I don’t need to look at the teacher to know what’s going on,” Goro replies dismissively, “Now, are you coming with me or not? I’d rather not waste my lunch hour on chasing down girls in hopes of solving a decades old case.”

“Fine, fine,” Ren replies and stands up. He follows the detective to the girls but doesn’t even get the chance to speak when they reach the two.

“Do you know where Naoto is?” Goro asks them both. Chie folds her arms while Yukiko raises her eyebrow.

“Even if we do, why should we tell you?” Chie asks defensively, “You just want to get in her way, don’t you?”

“The opposite, in fact,” Goro replies calmly, “I wish to speak with her on normal terms so we can share our findings. Two heads are better than one and all that.”

“She did mention something about the roof this morning,” Yukiko replies while tapping her chin with her index finger, much to Chie’s dismay.

“Yukiko!” She exclaims and looks back at the other two, “Yeah fine, she’s probably on the roof. She liked that spot until you started lurking there so she’s probably there now that you’re alive again.”

“That wasn’t so painful, was it?” Goro asks them sarcastically and before either can reply, he leaves the room, pulling on Ren’s sleeve, “Let’s go.”

Getting pulled by Goro leaves Ren with little choice but to follow him unless he wanted a rip in his jacket, so he does as he’s told, and only when Goro knows the other will do as he says, he let’s go of Ren’s sleeve, “Naoto wouldn’t miss class unless she had something, I’m certain of it. She was already speaking to us in the library as if she had a lead.”

“You’re sounding desperate,” Ren points out and Goro shakes his head.

“I made a promise I intend to fulfil. Naoto’s dislike of me and my methods isn’t going to stop me from preventing as many deaths as I can,” he insists as they reach the stairs leading up to the rooftop, “And I told you already, I don’t intend to waste my lunch hour purely on locating someone.”

They walk up the stairs and Goro insists Ren go first so Naoto isn’t immediately discouraged by seeing Ren show up. Rolling his eyes, Ren pushes the door with his whole hand and walks outside.

It’s drizzling a little, but visibility is pretty high although to some extent Ren wished it wasn’t. As soon as he walks through, he sees someone leaning over the edge of the rooftop over the barrier. He tries to shout to the person so they don’t jump but it’s too late as Shiho let’s go of the barrier and let’s gravity pull her off the roof.

“Shiho!” Ren hears Goro shout. The detective runs over to the barrier and looks down while Ren tries to find his phone in his pockets. Goro turns around and grabs Ren’s phone out of his hands as soon as he unlocks it, “I’ll deal with that. Get Kawakami.”

Ren immediately does as he’s told and runs down the stairs as quickly as he can, then through the hallways. He bursts into the classroom and it immediately goes quiet, “It’s Shiho! She jumped! Goro’s already calling for an ambulance but-,” he tries to say but Kawakami’s already out of her chair and out the door, running down the hall in the direction of the stairs. Some of the students follow her, including Ryuji, Haru and Yuuki, while the others stay and look through the windows to see what’s going on.

Makoto takes a step back from the window and looks around he students, “please, everyone try to remain calm! I’m sure everything will be fine; the teachers are already taking care of it and an ambulance is on the way.”

“Who are you trying to convince?” Ken asks, still looking through the window, “Face it, Makoto. There’s no point in denying the Calamity now.”


	5. June I

“I’m sorry.”

They’re the first words Ren hears when he comes back to Leblanc from school, having stayed there a little longer with Ryuji and the rest of the group. Since Shiho’s death all the fighting in the class had ceased. Rarely did people stay at school unless they absolutely had to. Everyone except for Ren, Ryuji, Yusuke, Haru and of course, Goro, all of whom were now involved with the investigation.

So seeing the Countermeasures Officer at his home threw off Ren more than a little, not to mention her apologising to him.

He closes the door behind him and looks over to Sojiro, who shrugs and continues drying the cup he had in his hand, “You’ll have to be more specific,” Ren replies, “I mean… I’m not entirely sure what you’re apologising for. You never talk to me.”

Makoto motions to the booth next to her which, “Then allow me to explain. Do you have the time to sit with me for a cup of coffee.”

He’d finished his homework already while Goro worked at the library and everyone else was doing… well definitely not investigating, as much as they called their social meetings that. It wasn’t like he could say he had to go home either since everyone by now knew he lived in Leblanc’s attic, leaving him with only one option.

“I’m free.”

“Good,” Makoto nods, picks up her cup and puts it on the bar, “I’d like another cup please,” she says to Sojiro then sits down at the booth. Ren joins her by sitting on the other side of it and sets his bag down next to him, “I heard that Goro Akechi already told you about the Calamity and why I do what I do.”

“He did,” Ren confirms, “You probably already know that’s why I’m helping him in the first place.”

“I do,” Makoto replies and crosses her arms, leaning back in her seat, “Confirming each other’s information gathering skills wasn’t why I came here, however. I wanted to apologise to you because I’m the one who ordered the class to ignore you after Minako and Kamoshida died. I believed that it was you interacting with Goro that triggered the Calamity and hoped that pretending like you didn’t exist would put a stop to it.”

“Are you going to apologise to Goro?” Ren asks and Makoto shakes her head.

“He made his bed,” she replies harshly, “He knew what he was getting himself involved in and I don’t think he’s completely free of this either. Even if you spoke to him, he never should have replied. He should have walked away as he was instructed to do. I believe he is partly responsible for the Calamity this year.”

Ren raises his eyebrow, “Partly? Don't you think you should be blamed too? You haven’t told the class to ostracise you for your mistakes,” he throws back at her. Sure, it was pretty mean, but considering what she’d put him and Goro through, it was fairly justified now that she got away with it in the eyes of the other students.

“That’s… harsh, but fair I suppose,” Makoto looks down and sighs, “I’ll admit, I don’t want to be blamed publicly by the others, even if it’s the coward’s way out. I won’t be putting the blame on Goro either, not in front of the others, but I’m not ready to forgive him.”

“I don’t think he’s looking for forgiveness,” Ren tells her as Sojiro sets the cups of coffee in front of both of them, “Actually… I don’t think he really cares what the others think of him right now. That’s what he’s acting like right now.”

Makoto raises an eyebrow, “What? Are you his best friend now or something?”

“Closest thing he has to one, I guess,” Ren couldn’t say he and Goro were super close. There were still many things he was sure the detective was hiding from him, and even then they’d only known each other for two months, “I’m just trying to understand him.”

Makoto scoffs, lifting the cup of coffee off the table, “Good luck with that. Not even those closest to him understand what’s going through Goro Akechi’s head,” she side-eyes Sojiro, then looks back at Ren, “Take it from someone who’s tried.”

“You knew him before this?”

Makoto takes a long sip of her hot coffee, then sets down her cup, “Briefly in middle school yes, when he first came to this town.”

“I thought he’s from Tokyo?”

Makoto shrugs, “Who knows where he’s from originally. He hasn’t divulged that secret to anyone that I know of. No, he lived here for a couple of years before he left, then came back again. No one knows what it was that pushed him away or brought him back here. Naoto might, but I suppose she respects his privacy too much to share that information. Which is why I can’t understand why he would choose to nominate himself.”

“He wanted to save everyone,” Ren offers but Makoto is quick to shoot it down.

“He’s lying. He tells that to people so they don’t stop his agenda,” Makoto informs Ren, “Goro doesn’t care for the others and never did. He wanted the free time to get ahead and try to solve the greatest mystery of this town by himself. Saving the class is just a consolation prize for him.”

Ren reaches for his own cup of coffee and takes a drink, giving himself a little pause to think. Goro wouldn’t really do that, would he? Makoto did say she tried and failed to understand him in the first place, so who was she to say what his true intentions were, “that’s pretty negative view of him.”

“He’s insufferable,” Makoto huffs, “I could be wrong, of course. As I said, I don’t know what truly lies inside his heart, but I struggle to think he’s completely altruistic.”

“And you are?” Ren asks, “You’re the countermeasures officer. That’s a lot of responsibility. Did you do it because you wanted to save everyone for their sake?”

“I didn’t have much of a choice,” Makoto resigns, leaning back in her seat, “My sister was the countermeasures officer when she ended up in class 3-C and nothing happened that year. Everyone expected me to take the role, and I couldn’t disappoint. You’ve seen the people in our class. Do you think anyone else would be willing to take on that kind of burden?”

Ren drinks more of his coffee and lets the question hang in the air. She wasn’t completely wrong. The rest of the class was quick to pass judgement on Goro without even letting him defend himself, and chances were that Makoto was right. They would never want to have her job or responsibility.

Didn’t make her words any less judgmental.

Ren sets his cup down with a clink, now empty and leans back in his own seat, “If you simply came here to pass judgement under the pretence of an apology, then we have nothing else to talk about.”

Makoto looks down, but surprisingly, she smiles, “You’re starting to even sound like him… well, I guess that’s bound to happen if he’s the only one who talks to you or pays any attention for you… but in truth, I came here to confess.”

Oh?

“I’ve been judging everyone else, that’s true…” she trails off and puts her head in her hands, “I’m the one that’s failed the class. It was just so easy to blame you and Goro for all of this, but it’s me who was tasked with preventing it. I should have told you about it when you first arrived… but I was just a coward.”

Her confession leaves Ren conflicted and uncertain of how he’s supposed to act next. On the one hand, he’s driven to console the girl pouring her fears and concerns out to him, but on the other hand, he’s still pissed at her for everything she’s done.

His kinder side gets the best of him, and he reaches his hand out towards her, “We can still change this,” he offers a smile when she looks up at him, “Crying over what happened won’t bring Minako or Ann or Shiho back, but trying to figure out what the Calamity is might save the others from this curse. I won’t say everyone will accept you, but why don’t you join us? You’re clever, and another point of view might help move things along.”

“Goro won’t be happy,” she wipes her cheeks with her sleeves.

Ren shakes his head, “Leave Goro to me. For now, let’s just try and get some new leads for this. Goro and I ran out of ideas already and Naoto won’t share so-.”

“The class of 1990,” Makoto cuts him off, “She asked me about it. That’s what she’s investigating. She wants to know why the calamity abruptly stopped that year and she wants to repeat it.”

Ren gets out of his chair, picks up both of their cups and walks over to the sink, where he leaves them with the promise of washing up later, “We can go to the library tomorrow. They have yearbooks there, and we can find who was in the class that year. Maybe we’ll find more hints. I’ll try to talk to Goro at lunch.”

* * *

He doesn’t talk to Goro.

The detective doesn’t even show up to school that day.

It worries Ren, considering that by now Kawakami did check the register for both of them so it wasn’t like he had that excuse anymore.

At lunch he hangs out with his new group of friends, and while he wants to pay attention to what they’re talking about, none of it gets through to him. Futaba’s probably talking about featherman. Yusuke said something about a painting. Ryuji might be going out for a run tonight. Haru’s going to be too busy tending to the garden to hang out today, maybe.

In the end, Ren just takes out his phone and calls his friend, but as he expected and worried, Goro doesn’t pick up. He tries one more time near the end of the lunch period but gets the same result. Right before walking back into class, he opts to text him.

 **‘Sorry if I’m annoying you…** ’

‘ **But just let me know if you’re okay**.’

“You worried about him that much, huh?” Ryuji asks, leaning over and reading his texts, “Sorry, I noticed you were kinda out of it today, so I was wonderin’ what that was about. Goro’s probably fine, maybe he just got caught up in something?”

 _A car accident_ , his brain supplies unhelpfully.

“Yeah, probably,” Ren mutters instead and takes a seat. He looks back at Goro’s worn desk one last time, but it doesn’t seem like he’ll be joining them for afternoon classes either.

* * *

The bell rings but Ren’s phone still doesn’t.

Makoto almost immediately gets out of her desk and walks over to Ren’s but reaches it around the same time as Ryuji. His blond friend looks at him questioningly. Ren looks over to Makoto waiting for her to say something but when she doesn’t, he turns back to Ryuji, “I can’t go running today. I promised Makoto I’d help her with something… and later I kinda want to check on… you know.”

Even though hints aren’t Ryuji’s strong suit he seems to pick up on what Ren’s talking about, so he smiles and waves his hand, leaving his desk, “See ya tomorrow then. Keep me updated, yeah?”

Ren hums back in response, reaches for his bag and stands up, “Let’s go,” he says, and the two leave the classroom along with the rest of their classmates, but they turn off down the corridor in the direction of the library instead of the stairs.

It’s just as quiet and musty as it was when Ren was last here with Goro, but with the difference of someone else already here, with a book open in front of them while they take notes, “That’s the 1990 yearbook, isn’t it?” Makoto asks, “May we have a look?”

Too busy worrying about a different detective, Ren didn’t even realise Naoto had skipped afternoon classes till now.

“Once I’m done,” the blue haired detective replies without stopping her writing, “You’re no longer with Goro,” she notices, clearly talking to Ren, “I’m not going to be any more cooperative than I was before simply because he’s not here at the moment.”

“I’m not going to ask you to be,” Ren says and sits across from her, “You’re writing down the names of the students that survived that year, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” she answers as she finishes up the last one. She glances up, looks between the two of them, then sighs. She extends her hand out towards Ren, “could you give me your phone?”

“Why?”

“I want to give you my number,” she insists, and he reaches into his pocket to fish it out, “That, and I’m going to save you the time of looking through this list yourself since I’m sure you’re coming to the same conclusions as I am,” she takes the phone from him and the first thing she does is take a picture of her own list. She then goes into contacts and adds her number, before writing down his on the piece of paper she had written all of the names on, “I’d still rather work this case on my own if you’re going to involve Goro in all of this, but it doesn’t mean I’m unwilling to help you at all. If you need anything else, then let me know. I might not always reply immediately.”

“That’s… thanks,” Ren replies in a surprised tone, but Naoto doesn’t comment on it when she gives him his phone back. Instead, she picks up her bag and goes for the door.

“Well, good luck.”

As soon as she’s gone, Ren hands Makoto the phone so she could look over the list herself, “I see you and her already have a history.”

“Her and Goro do,” Ren corrects Makoto, “She doesn’t get along with him and doesn’t share info like that around him… but I think it’s because Goro’s kind of a dick to her so it’s a waste of time. Since he’s not here…”

“She knew she’d at least be appreciated for her work,” Makoto concludes for him, “Do you mind if I send this to myself? I’ll see if my sister knows anything about the individuals on this list. Boss has been living in this town for a long time too now, perhaps he knows something as well?”

* * *

There’s still no text when he gets back to Leblanc.

Ren would ask Sojiro if he’s heard from Goro at all today, but he doesn’t want to worry the man either. Instead, he brings up the list on his phone while doing his homework in one of the booths and turns to the man who was watching the news, “Boss? You’ve been here for a long time, haven’t you?”

“This isn’t a set up to comment on my age, is it?” Sojiro asks in a gruff voice but Ren shakes his head. Sojiro sighs, “Sorry, Futaba was interrogating me about a grey hair she found and I guess it got to me more than I expected. Yeah, the café itself isn’t that old but I’ve lived here for most of my life.”

“So you know everyone around town?” Sojiro nods, and Ren gets out of his seat to show him the phone, “Do you recognise any of these names? They all graduated in 1990 and they all went to the same class we’re all in right now.”

Sojiro takes the phone from him and looks over the names, humming while he tries to recall each one, “Most of these people left this town as soon as they could. Too many painful memories if I had to guess. But… that’s right. There’s this one. Wakaba Isshiki.”

“Isshiki?”

Sojiro nods, “I knew her well, not in high school but I knew her from work. We were close friends, which is why I ended up adopting her kids after she died in a car accident last year.”

So Isshiki’s daughter must’ve been Futaba… could that have meant then-

“She isn’t Goro’s mother if that’s what you’re thinking,” Sojiro continues, reading his mind, “Not his biological one. She adopted him after she discovered that he and Futaba share a father that abandoned him as well.”

“Do you know if anyone on here is still alive? It’s… for research purposes. I wanted to ask them about their time in Shujin,” Ren says, trying to find the most subtle way of describing their circumstances.

Sojiro points to another name, “Iwai. He owns a model gun shop here in town, but good luck getting anything out of him. Since he graduated, he hasn’t mentioned his high school years from what I know and pretends like the school doesn’t even exist. He sends his own kid to a school in a different town just to avoid that place.”

It’s not a great sign, but it’s a better lead than lacking one at all.

He pulls out his phone, carefully picking who he should share the info with, until he finally lands on the name of the person he thought he could trust with the information he got.

‘ **The owner of the model gun shop owner might know something. Someone should talk to him.** ’

He quickly gets an answer back, albeit a disappointing one from Naoto.

‘ **Try talking to him. I can’t help you any further right now. You’re on your own.** ’

* * *

Each time one of his friends asks him if he wanted to hang out after school, Ren turned it down with various excuses; Sojiro needed help in the café, he needed to catch up on what he missed still, his parents were going to call him and that was supposed to take up a lot of his afternoon somehow. They all seem to fall for it, or at the very least, understand that he’s too busy with the real reason to relax.

Even Futaba doesn’t follow him once they leave the school, so he goes directly to the centre of town where Sojiro said he’d find the model gun shop. He struggles at first, having spent very little time in this part of the town, but eventually finds it situated in a back alley, flashing neon green sign over the door.

He steps in and the owner barely looks up from his magazine, eyeing him occasionally as Ren pretends to look around while trying to find a reason to talk to the owner. After loitering around the shop, he finally walks up to the desk empty handed and gets straight to the topic at hand, “Are you Iwai?”

“What’s it to ya, kid?” The man replies in a gruff voice.

“I’m from class 3-C and-.”

“I got nothing to tell any of you kids,” he cuts him off and goes back to his newspaper, “Stop trying to ask. I don’t remember my time there so you’re wasting your time trying to talk to me about it.”

“Right… sorry to bother you then,” Ren says, backing off and leaving the shop as soon as the owner stops replying to him at all.

“Speaking with him when he’s sober won’t get you anywhere,” the man that had been apparently ignoring his texts till now speaks, standing just outside the door, umbrella over his head as the rain begins to pour, “He’s quite the talker when he’s had enough to drink, or so I hear.”

“You’re alive,” Ren states monotonously.

“You sound disappointed,” Goro replies, taking out his phone, “I’ve been busy. I apologise for not telling you sooner.”

“I’m not disappointed,” Ren sighs, pulling an umbrella out of his bag, “I’m annoyed you didn’t at least text me, not even just a smiley face or anything so I’d know you didn’t die…” he looks to Goro who barely seems to be into the conversation as he starts typing something out on his phone. Ren simply sighs and moves on, “Sojiro told me about your situation.”

“And?” He asks but Ren shrugs.

“And it’s not my business. Are you angry that I found out?”

“You were going to someday,” Goro shakes his head and finally puts his phone away, turning to Ren, “I suppose I’m glad it was Sojiro who told you and not someone who doesn’t understand the full circumstances. My past is irrelevant right now anyway, since it has nothing to do with solving this case.”

Ren’s phone buzzes in his pocket and he pulls out it, finding a message from Goro that he sent a couple of minutes ago, the terrible connection delaying it, “What’s Crossroads?”

“The only bar in this town,” Goro answers, “The full address is below. I expect you to come at the time I’ve indicated.”

He makes it sound like it’s not a choice he can make, but Ren knows it’s only because he’s as invested in finding out the truth as Goro himself is, “I’ll be there.”


	6. June II

“Sorry, we don’t serve kids,” the bartender behind the bar says as soon as she sees Ren walk through the door of Crossroads. Goro follows after him and takes a seat at the bar.

“We aren’t here to drink,” Goro explains their boldness, “We’re from class 3-C, and I believe one of your patrons was as well and may have some information on the matter. However, he’s unlikely to speak to us when sober, so…” he trails off, hoping that it’s enough.

The bartender sets down the glass she was drying and sighs, “3-C? Yeah, fine, you kids need all the help you can get anyway. Feel free to stay as long as you need to, but I’ll be keeping an eye on you. Even if you are in 3-C I won’t be giving you any alcohol.”

“Apple juice it is then,” Akechi nods and looks over to Ren, who orders a soda instead and takes a seat next to Goro. They receive their drinks and sit in silence for a little while as more and more people begin to fill the place, though it never gets loud enough for them not to be able to have a conversation at a reasonable volume.

“You have no questions for me?” Goro asks eventually, breaking the silence between them.

Ren shakes his head, “I thought you might tell me everything in your own time, I didn’t want to be insensitive. Sojiro said your father abandoned you, but he never said what happened to your mother. I didn’t think Wakaba could’ve just taken you away from her.”

Goro shakes his head, “She didn’t have to. My mother was gone by the time Wakaba discovered my existence and took me out of the foster care system. I’m afraid the story itself isn’t a very interesting or a particularly nice one either.”

“I want to know anyway, if you’re willing to share,” Ren adds in the last minute, and Goro eyes him suspiciously as if waiting for him to take it back or say that it was a joke, but when Ren does neither, Goro complies.

“My father was never in my life, at least not in my childhood. The abandonment took a toll on my mother, who did what she could to raise me but, in the end, the despair overcame her. I was only 8 when I was moved into the foster care system and it was only at 13 that Wakaba adopted me and brought me to this town,” Goro takes a sip of his juice, “I suppose that only explains part of it, but I don’t want to bore you with the other details.”

Ren looks away from his drink and over to Goro, “You aren’t boring me. I am curious about this, but I can’t force you to say what you don’t to tell me. But if you do want to vent then I’m here to listen. I hear it helps sometimes.”

Goro scoffs and sets his drink down, “You barely even know me, and you care this much? Well then, if you are this curious, I’ll indulge you; I found out my father was a high-ranking politician and wanted nothing but to see his world crumble. I set out to Tokyo and became the Detective Prince in an attempt to dig up dirt on him despite Wakaba insisting that I stay here. I… got involved in some very shady business that I’m unwilling to discuss, but I managed to escape and hide away here.”

“You became the dead student because no one would reveal you’re here if they aren’t supposed to talk about you?” Ren asks but Goro looks away from him.

“It was convenient, but that’s not why I did it. Of course people like Makoto think otherwise, and while she doesn't know the details she does appear to think I did this to hide myself away. But I told you, I wanted to uncover the truth behind the calamity, and I wanted to save the others.” Goro downs his juice before looking to the door, hoping that it was going to reveal Iwai, but instead it was just another patron Ren didn’t recognise.

The information stops clicking for Ren as much as it used to. Naoto and Makoto were both so certain in their accusations that Goro was someone who mostly looked out for himself, and yet he couldn’t see any of that. They must’ve had some basis for thinking that if they didn't know what really happened in Tokyo, and Ren didn’t put it past Goro to outright lie to him, but that didn’t feel quite right either…

Unless of course, he was telling the truth in his own cryptic way.

“You don’t care about what happens to the others,” Ren speaks carefully, “That was clear the day you and Ryuji had that fight in the classroom… Naoto seems to think it’s so you can get the praise of stopping this thing, and yeah maybe that’s a nice prize but that’s not your end goal.”

“Perceptive,” Goro comments, his voice too hard to read for any sign of anger or surprise, “Tell me then, what is it that I’m after?”

“Futaba,” Ren says, everything clicking into place, “And Sojiro, I think. They’re the only family you have left. It’s why you moved out, to make it easier on them, right? You act like you’re completely alone on this, but they’re the only ones who ever cared for you, so you want to protect them.”

Goro pauses, taking in what Ren had said, and finally lets out a light chuckle, “You truly think I’m such a paragon of good? That I’d put my life on the line for those two? Well… perhaps there is some truth to that. I wouldn’t want to see either of them harmed,” he gets out of his seat and pays for their drinks, “It may be for the best that you believe I’m doing this for the greater good.”

It’s impossible to tell how much Goro was lying and how much he was speaking the truth. Ren want to believe that it’s the truth, it would make the most sense, and Goro’s words only made him believe it further.

“What are you doing?” Ren asks when he notices Goro getting ready to leave.

“He’s not coming today. We may as leave.”

“How can you be so sure?”

Goro nods towards the door, “I’ve been observing this place for the last few days to see when he comes here. The days aren’t always the same, but the hour is, because it's not too long after he and his son have dinner together. If he were to come here, he would’ve showed up half an hour ago.”

“Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“Because you were right,” Goro finally looks to Ren, “Venting did help and I’m feeling better now. Even if that weren’t the reason, I didn’t want to leave in case he decided to come here at the last minute, or something else was holding him up from coming here at his usual time, but I suppose not. We can come back again tomorrow, or the day after that, or the day after that. As long as you’re up for it.”

* * *

One his way back to the café, with just a sniff of his shirt, Ren decides that he can’t just walk inside and pretend like he wasn’t in a bar. He didn’t know how much Sojiro would care about that sort of thing but he didn’t want to find out. He turns right instead of left when he’s reached the street the café was on and into the laundry area. He takes off his shirt, shoes and pants, leaving him only in his underwear and shoves his booze-smelling clothes into the washing machine. At the last second, he remembers to retrieve his phone and checks it, finding a few messages on there.

Most of them seemed to be from Ryuji.

> ‘ **Hey man, have you heard from Yusuke?** ’
> 
> ‘ **I was talking to him but then he cut off** ’
> 
> ‘ **I’m worried about him now** ’
> 
> ‘ **Great now you’re not replying** ’
> 
> ‘ **Did I miss ‘Don’t text Ryuji day’ or what???** ’

Sensing his desperation, Ren quickly sends him a text to reassure his friend he was okay.

> ‘ **Yeah I’m fine**.’
> 
> ‘ **Sorry I was doing stuff with Goro** ’
> 
> ‘ **Uh, research stuff** ’

No way was he telling Ryuji of all people that he spent the night with Goro in a bar. He was bound to misunderstand that wildly and start a rumour that Goro certainly wouldn’t appreciate.

> ‘ **Anyway have you tried calling him?** ’
> 
> ‘ **I can do it.** ’

He leaves his chatting app and goes to his contacts, pulling up Yusuke’s number as quickly as possible. He dials, and a female voice answers on the other side only after a few rings, “Hello? Uh… Ren? It’s Kasumi.”

“Kasumi?” He asks, unaware that Yusuke was in any way close to her, “Why do you have Yusuke’s phone?”

“This is Yusuke’s phone? Oh that explains a lot,” Kasumi replies, “Uh… okay, this looks bad, but I didn’t steal it! I found it on the ground and thought that maybe it belonged to one of those ER guys! I was gonna return it once I found out who it belonged to!”

“Y-yeah, that’s not the problem here,” Ren shakes his head, “You said ER? Did something happen to Yusuke? Is he okay?”

“I think he is,” Kasumi reassures him somewhat, “I live next door to him, and I didn’t see much, just him going into the ambulance, but it wasn’t him that the ER’s were around, I think it was a member of his family.”

“Right… well, thanks for letting me know. Just hang onto his phone until you see him again, I guess,” Ren suggests, and after exchanging pleasantries, he hangs up and texts Ryuji again.

> ‘ **Yusuke is alive, but something happened to his family**.’
> 
> ‘ **He dropped his phone and Kasumi found it** ’
> 
> ‘ **Probably didn’t know the passcode so she couldn’t text you back** ’

He sees Ryuji replying as soon as he finishes texting him.

> ‘ **Shit okay** ’
> 
> ‘ **Crap** ’
> 
> ‘ **Dammit right so** ’
> 
> ‘ **I’ll try to get to the hospital** ’
> 
> ‘ **I’ll keep you updated, kay?** ’

* * *

The class is quiet the next day when Ren walks in, even Goro sits in the back reading a book instead of looking up when Ren walks in. As soon as he’s seated, Kawakami walks through and begins the class, “You may have heard already, but Kitagawa-kun will not be attending class for the next week for family reasons, but that does not mean that class is dismissed for the rest of you,” she sighs deeply, “Alright then, who’s leading today?”

As soon as homeroom is over, Ren pulls out his phone and tries to text Ryuji, who hadn’t kept him updated at all the night before. He didn’t blame the guy; it probably wasn’t easy to keep him informed and comfort Yusuke through whatever he was going through,

> ‘ **Can you tell me what happened?** ’
> 
> ‘ **How does everyone already know?** ’

He glances over to Ryuji and watches the other pull out his phone and text him back. Ren looks back down at his phone when it buzzes.

> ‘ **It’s his mum** ’
> 
> ‘ **I couldn’t get all the info but…** ’
> 
> ‘ **You can probably figure the rest out.** ’
> 
> ‘ **I dunno how everyone else knows** ’
> 
> ‘ **But I guess Sumi must’ve blabbed.** ’
> 
> ‘ **Or someone saw her with his phone and asked questions** ’
> 
> ‘ **Anyway I’m goin’ to his place later with Haru and Futaba.** ’

When the text messages stop coming in, Ren begins typing out his own.

> ‘ **Should I come?** ’

A buzz.

> ‘ **That’s not a good idea** ’
> 
> ‘ **Like…** ’
> 
> ‘ **We know you and Goro ain’t responsible for this but…** ’
> 
> ‘ **Ya know…** ’

Ren sighs and texts him one last time.

> ‘ **No I get it.** ’
> 
> ‘ **Take care of him.** ’

* * *

“Are you ready to go to the bar again?” Goro asks from his seat in the café. Ren had been so focused on his homework, desperately trying to keep Yusuke out of his head while he wasn’t able to find out how the guy was doing he didn’t even notice Goro come in for a cup or even Sojiro apparently leaving and forcing him to close up for the night, “I understand if you don’t want to, considering what happened. I won’t force you-.”

“I’ll come,” Ren says, closing his notebook and setting his pen down, “All I’m doing is thinking about the worst anyway, and just wallowing in pity isn’t going to change anything,” he gets out of the booth he was sitting in and reaches in his bag to pull out his wallet and keys, “I’ll just go change. I don’t want to wash out the bar smell out of my uniform again.”

Goro looks down at his own Shujin summer shirt and pulls on it, “I suppose I should do the same. In which case, I’ll meet you outside Crossroads in fifteen minutes?”

Ren nods and before leaving, Goro picks up his empty cup of coffee and plate of curry and puts them into the sink for Ren to wash up later, “See you soon,” Goro mutters and leaves the café with a chime of the bells above the door.

Ren first washes up Goro’s dirty dishes, not trusting himself with staying up long enough once he returned to wash the dishes and knowing that if he left them overnight, he’d become the next victim of the tragedy at Sojiro’s hands. Once he’s dried them and put them away, Ren runs upstairs, throws his shirt and pants onto his desk chair and quickly gets into some regular clothes; a hoodie and some jeans he didn’t really mind getting dirty.

With some time to spare, he makes sure everything he needs for tomorrow is ready for the next day so all he has to do when he gets back is shower and go to bed, and once he’s certain he isn’t missing anything he walks out of the café and locks it behind him.

The air outside is quite warm with the summer fast approaching, but the streets of the village are completely empty, eerily so. The village wasn’t lively, not compared to the city that Ren lived in before this, but even so there were usually maybe a few people out for an evening stroll with their dogs, or just getting back from a long day of work. No such thing tonight as no one seemed to be in the streets. Maybe even those who didn’t have any connection to the school knew just how bad the calamity was this year and didn’t want to risk getting caught up.

Ren continues walking through the streets with his hands in his pockets, only his keys bumping against him and his footsteps making any kind of noise, at least until he reaches the bar where Goro waits for him in an argyle vest, not too far from some other people standing outside, having a smoke, “He’s here tonight,” Goro informs him, “And already drunk at that.”

“So we’re in luck?” Ren asks, “You said that’s the only way he’d talk.”

“It’s the only chance we have that he’ll talk, but there is no guarantee,” Goro informs him and pulls the door open, “I’ll see what I can get out of him first, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll let you have a try.”

With a plan set in motion, Ren follows Goro into Crossroads. From the bar, Lala nods at them as soon as they walk in, then nods towards Iwai, sitting at the back of the bar, hunched over the beer he’d been pouring over for the last ten minutes. Goro makes a beeline for him while Ren opts to sit at the bar instead, figuring the guy wouldn’t talk to both of them if they surrounded him, “Could I have some soda please? One for my friend too,” he asks Lala while waiting.

“So what’s the deal with you and the detective?” She asks as she pours them two glasses of a purple liquid, “From the gossip I’ve been hearing around town, he doesn’t talk to anyone. And here he was last night pouring his heart out to you.”

“Probably just have one of those trustworthy faces I guess,” Ren replies, not making anything of it, but Lala shakes her head.

“Trustworthy faces aren’t enough for detective like him…” Lala trails off, looking to the back, “not that I know him, but rumours spread quickly in this town. Last year I know he stopped talking to everyone after what happened, and here he is opening up to some stranger. Must’ve taken a liking to you.”

“Accident?” Ren asks but before he gets a response, he figures out it must’ve been about Wakaba, “Oh right… maybe just having someone to talk to who didn’t know about what happened here helped? You know, since I have no reason to judge a stranger and all.”

“If that’s what you’re going to believe, go right ahead,” Lala shrugs and gives him both of the sodas, “I’m always ready for some new gossip, so hit me up if anything does end up happening between the two of you,” she winks, and unfortunately Goro takes a seat next to him before Ren can ask her what she means by that.

“He called me a pig and said he doesn’t talk to cops,” Goro sighs and picks up his own soda, “I should’ve expected as much. I doubt he talked to Naoto either… but you look like you could be the delinquent type,” Goro smirks, eyeing Ren, “Perhaps you can bond with him.”

“I have straight-A’s.”

“He doesn’t know that,” Goro says slyly, “Tell him you’re using me to have an in with the police, so you can stay on their good side. Maybe throw in how everyone was avoiding you due to some rumours about you assaulting a man.”

“That’s pretty specific,” Ren points out but Goro just shrugs, “I’ll lie to him if it comes down to it,” the other lets him know before picking up his soda and walking over to Iwai. He sits down next to the man without asking him if the seat is empty and sets his soda down, “About class 3-C-.”

“I told your friend, I ain’t telling shit to you pigs,” Iwai spits out, still looking down at his beer bottle.

Onto plan B then, “I’m not a detective. I just stick around him cos he keeps the cops out of my business,” he lies to Iwai, somewhat convincingly, “I am helping him with this though. We’re in the same class, and I’m in no hurry to die.”

“So you believe that crap?” Iwai asks, looking up from his beer finally, “It’s all just coincidence kid, I can’t help you with that.”

“People related to that class have been dying for so long and you think it’s a coincidence?” Ren asks and brings his drink to his lips, “You’re starting to sound a lot like the pigs you hate so much.”

Iwai gets out of his seat suddenly, pushing the table away, but Ren doesn’t flinch, “The fuck did you just say? You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Ren puts his soda down on the table that had moved a couple of inches from him and folds his legs, “I just want to know what happened to you in 1990, but if you’re too much of a pussy to share then I’ll leave you alone.”

He isn’t even sure where these words are coming from, or how he got the sudden courage to speak to the drunk man, but the other seems convinced enough by his act and sits back down, “I don’t remember, that’s what this shitty thing does to you, it erases your memory or some shit. I just know some horrible shit happened… but I recorded it while I still remembered it,” Iwai slumps in his chair, “Whatever the fuck I did back then to stop this thing, only the recording will tell you.”

“Where is it?”

“I don’t remember that either,” Iwai shakes his head, “I told you, this thing fucks with your head. That’s all I remember. Now, leave me alone.”

Whether or not he was telling the truth, Ren figures he won’t be able to get more out of the guy and leaves him alone. He downs the rest of the soda on his way back to the bar, and puts it down on the counter, while pulling out his wallet to pay for the drinks, “I got what we came for,” he looks to the bartender and gives her the change, “Thanks for letting us come here, and sorry for the trouble.”

It’s only once Goro’s finished his own soda and they leave the bar, taking a few steps away from it too for them not to be overheard by the smokers, that Ren starts to talk, “He doesn’t remember, or at least that’s what he said to me, just that he recorded what happened back in 1990.”

“I see,” Goro rubs his chin between his thumb and index finger in thought, “I don’t think he was lying necessarily… we already know that the Calamity is able to mess with people’s heads and make them forget that people who you think are alive are actually dead… but if he recorded it, and remembers recording a message, why hasn’t he shared it with us?”

“He seemed to forget where he put it, maybe he didn’t anticipate that he'd forget everything about it.”

“Hmmm…” Goro hums before speaking his thoughts out loud, “What if… well, this is hoping that younger Iwai was smarter than the current one, left the message somewhere accessible to others? If it were in his home, he most likely would have found it by now and figured out what it was sooner or later but that doesn’t seem to be the case. Perhaps then, if we are lucky, we’ll find it somewhere in the school?”

Ren nods, “Looking around school might be a problem though now that everyone think we’re alive.”

Goro agrees with him, “We can’t interrupt classes anymore, and I doubt the after-school clubs would be happy to have us snooping around, but the school closes once the after-school clubs pack up. I'd rather not have to break and enter the very school we attend. I’ll work on any other leads I find in the meantime… otherwise we’ll have to wait until the summer holidays. The school is open then for the library and after-school clubs that wish to continue their training, so sneaking in shouldn’t be an issue.”

“Do you want me to do anything then?”

Goro shakes his head, “Be a normal student and don’t get killed. I don’t have any work for you that I can think of. I suppose I should stop keeping you away from Ryuji and the rest of your friends.”

“They’re your friends too, you know.”

“If you say so,” Goro shrugs, walking through the alleyway leading to the street Leblanc was on, “In any case, we need to be prepared for whatever we uncover in the su-,” he starts his sentence, only stopping when he sees someone running at the end of the alleyway and collapsing onto the street. Without hesitating, Goro runs ahead and Ren quickly catches up to him to help the figure at the end.

Kanji looks up briefly, clutching onto this gut and raises a bloodied hand, “N-no… y-you guys… gotta hide… it’s too l-late f-for me…” he stutters and looks down the alleyway, “H-hide behind the garbage bin… d-do it!”

“Kanji, we’re not running, what the hell happened?!” Goro shouts, but his question is quickly answered when a man with crazed eyes jumps at him and drives a dagger through his shoulder. Goro cries out in pain and clutches it, but before the man can pull it out, Ren shoves him out of the way to stop him from hurting either of the other guys more than he already has.

The guy scrambles to his feet and appears as if he’s preparing to pull out another sharp object from his coat, leaving Ren with little room to act. Luckily for the guys, the crazed man bolts as soon as he hears police sirens, down in the direction of Leblanc. Knowing it was closed and locked anyway, Ren turns to Goro, “Are you-?”

“Forget about me! I’m not the one bleeding out into the street!” Goro shouts at him and points to Kanji with his usable hand, “He’s the one who actually needs help!”

Ren runs to the other guy and puts his own hand to Kanji’s wound to stop the bleeding, but there's so many cuts he isn't sure he's helping the situation at all. Kanji, barely conscious, manages to whisper one final thing before he passes out, “I… I’m not the only… one.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unfortunately, this is where I've run out of chapters to post. Hopefully I'll be able to still post every week but this week is gonna be particularly hectic so I'll see how everything plays out. Anyway, thank you so much for sticking around till now, hopefully I will see you very soon!

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya! Thanks for reading my first chapter! I am going to try and update this weekly if time allows me for it. This story will have characters appearing from Royal in it but as it's an AU, there won't be any spoilers.
> 
> Also, this was originally going to be purely platonic but then someone annoyed me on twitter so I'm making this shuake out of spite. That being said, I'm not making romance the centre of this fic.


End file.
